Job 7

Job 7:1 Isn’t every mortal destined for forced labor on the land? Aren’t his days like those of a hired worker?

Job 7:2 Like a slave, he longs for shade; like a hired worker, he waits for his pay.

Job 7:3 So I have been made to inherit months of futility, and troubled nights have been assigned to me.

Job 7:4 When I lie down, I think, “When will I get up?” But the evening drags on endlessly, and I toss and turn until dawn.

Job 7:5 My flesh is clothed with maggots and encrusted with dirt. My skin forms scabs and then oozes.

Job 7:6 My days pass more quickly than a weaver’s shuttle; they end without hope.

Job 7:7 Remember that my life is only a breath. My eye will never see anything good again.

Job 7:8 The eye of anyone who looks at me will no longer see me. Your eyes will search for me, but I will be gone.

Job 7:9 As a cloud fades away and vanishes, so the one who goes down to Sheol will never rise again.

Job 7:10 He will never return to his house; his hometown will no longer remember him.

Therefore, I will not hold back my mouth. I will speak in the anguish of my breath; I will complain in the bitterness of my throat.

Job 7:12 Am I the sea or a sea monster, that you keep me under watch?

Job 7:13 When I say, “My bed will comfort me, and my couch will ease my complaint,”

Job 7:14 then you frighten me with dreams, and terrify me with visions,

Job 7:15 so that my throat prefers strangling — death instead of my bones.

Job 7:16 I give up! I will not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.

Job 7:17 What is a mere mortal, that you think so highly of him and pay so much attention to him?

Job 7:18 You examine him every morning and test him constantly.

Job 7:19 Will you ever look away from me or leave me alone long enough to swallow my spit?

Job 7:20 If I have sinned, what have I done to you, people-watcher? Why have you made me your target, so I have become a burden to you?

Job 7:21 Why not forgive my sin and pardon my iniquity? Because soon I will lie down in the grave. You will eagerly seek me, but I will be gone.

links:

a burdensome weight
Enosh – a mortal
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Thursday, July 12, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Wednesday, July 11, 2018
your target

The Job shelf in my library

Job 6

Job 6:1 Then Job answered. This is what he said:

Job 6:2 If only my grief could be weighed and my devastation along with it on the scales.

Job 6:3 Because then it would outweigh the sand of the seas! That is why my words are stammering.

Job 6:4 Because the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my breath drinks their poison. God’s terrors are layered against me.

Job 6:5 Does a wild donkey bray over fresh grass or an ox low over its fodder?

Job 6:6 Is bland food eaten without salt? Is there favor in an egg white?

Job 6:7 My throat refuses to touch them; they are like contaminated food.

Job 6:8 If only my request would be granted, and God would provide what I hope for:

Job 6:9 that he would decide to crush me, to unleash his power and cut me off!

Job 6:10 It would still bring me comfort, and I would leap for joy in unrelenting pain that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

Job 6:11 What strength do I have, that I should continue to hope? What is my future, that my throat should keep breathing?

Job 6:12 Is my strength that of stone, or my flesh made of bronze?

Job 6:13 Since I cannot help myself, the hope for success has been banished from me.

Job 6:14 A despairing man should receive loyalty from his friends, even if he abandons the fear of the Almighty.

Job 6:15 My brothers are as treacherous as a wadi, as seasonal streams that overflow

Job 6:16 and become darkened because of ice, and the snow melts into them.

Job 6:17 The wadis evaporate in warm weather; they disappear from their channels in hot weather.

Job 6:18 Caravans turn away from their routes, go up into the desert, and are destroyed.

Job 6:19 The caravans of Tema look for these streams. The traveling merchants of Sheba hope for them.

Job 6:20 They are ashamed because they had been confident of finding water. When they arrive there, they are disappointed.

Job 6:21 So this is what you have now become to me. When you see something dreadful, you are afraid.

Job 6:22 Have I ever said: “Give me something” or “Pay a bribe for me from your wealth”

Job 6:23 or “Deliver me from the enemy’s hand” or “Redeem me from the hand of the ruthless”?

Job 6:24 Teach me, and I will be silent. Please help me understand what I did wrong.

Job 6:25 How painful honest words can be! But what does your rebuke prove?

Job 6:26 Do you think that you can disprove my words or that a despairing man’s words are mere breath?

Job 6:27 No doubt you would cast lots for a fatherless child and negotiate a price to sell your friend.

Job 6:28 But now, please look at me; I will not lie to your face.

Job 6:29 Reconsider; don’t be unjust. Reconsider; my righteousness is still the issue.

Job 6:30 Is there injustice on my tongue or can my palate not taste disaster?

links:

a burdensome weight
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Monday, July 9, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Tuesday, July 10, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Wednesday, January 12, 2022
outweigh the sand

The Job shelf in my library

Job 5

Job 5:1 Call now! Will anyone answer you? Which of the sacred ones will you turn to?
Job 5:2 Because anger kills a fool, and jealousy slays the gullible.
Job 5:3 I have seen a fool taking root, but I immediately pronounced a curse on his home.
Job 5:4 His children are far from safety. They are crushed at the city gate, with no one to rescue them.
Job 5:5 The hungry eat his harvest, even taking it out of the thorns—the thirsty pant for his children’s wealth.
Job 5:6 For distress does not grow out of the soil, and trouble does not sprout from the ground.
Job 5:7 But humans are born for trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
Job 5:8 However, if I were you, I would appeal to God and would present my case to him.
Job 5:9 He does great and unsearchable things, miracles without number.
Job 5:10 He gives rain to the land and sends water to the fields.
Job 5:11 He sets the humble on high, and mourners are lifted to safety.
Job 5:12 He frustrates the schemes of the crafty so that they achieve no success.
Job 5:13 He traps the wise in their craftiness so that the plans of the deceptive are quickly ended.
Job 5:14 They encounter darkness by day, and they grope at noon as if it were night.
Job 5:15 He saves the needy from their sharp words and the clutches of the powerful.
Job 5:16 So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.
Job 5:17 See how happy the mortal is whom God corrects; so, accept the discipline of the Almighty.
Job 5:18 Because he wounds, but he also bandages; he strikes, but his hands also heal.
Job 5:19 He will rescue you from six calamities; no harm will touch you in seven.
Job 5:20 In famine, he will redeem you from death, and in battle, from the power of the sword.
Job 5:21 You will be safe from slander and not fear destruction when it comes.
Job 5:22 You will laugh at destruction and hunger and not fear the land’s wild creatures.
Job 5:23 Because you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
Job 5:24 You will know that your tent is secure, and nothing will be missing when you inspect your home.
Job 5:25 You will also know that your offspring will be many and your descendants like the grass of the ground.
Job 5:26 You will approach the grave in full strength, as a stack of sheaves is gathered in its season.
Job 5:27 We have investigated this, and it is true! Hear it and understand it for yourself.

links:

impatient and dismayed
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Saturday, July 7, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Sunday, July 8, 2018
we have investigated

The Job shelf in my library

Job 4

Job 4:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

Job 4:2 Should anyone try to speak with you when you are so tired? Yet who can keep from speaking?

Job 4:3 Indeed, you have instructed many and have strengthened weak hands.

Job 4:4 Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling and braced the knees that were buckling.

Job 4:5 But now that this has happened to you, you have become tired. It strikes you, and you are overwhelmed.

Job 4:6 Isn’t your piety your confidence, and the integrity of your life your hope?

Job 4:7 Think about this: who has been destroyed when he was innocent? Where have the honest been made to disappear?

Job 4:8 In my experience, those who plow injustice and those who sow trouble reap the same.

Job 4:9 They are destroyed at a single breathing[1] from God and come to an end by the breath of his nostrils.

Job 4:10 The lion may roar and the fierce lion growl, but the teeth of young lions are broken.

Job 4:11 The strong lion dies if it catches no prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

Job 4:12 A word was brought to me in secret; my ears caught a whisper of it.

Job 4:13 Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night, when deep sleep comes over men,

Job 4:14 fear and trembling came over me and made all my bones shake.

Job 4:15 I felt a wind[2]on my face, and the hair on my body stood up.

Job 4:16 A figure stood there, but I could not recognize its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes. I heard a whispering voice:

Job 4:17 “Can a mortal be righteous before God? Can a healthy man be purer than his Maker?”

Job 4:18 If God puts no trust in his servants and he charges his angels with foolishness,

Job 4:19 how much more those who dwell in clay houses, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like a moth!

Job 4:20 They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk; they are destroyed forever while no one notices.

Job 4:21 Are their tent cords not pulled up? They die without wisdom.

---

[1] נְשָׁמָה = breathing. Job 4:9.

[2]possibly breath

links:

eyes of grace
impatient and dismayed
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Friday, July 6, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Monday, July 25, 2016

The Job shelf in my library

Job 3

Job 3:1 After this, Job opened his mouth and declared the day he was born cursed.

Job 3:2 He spoke and said:

Job 3:3 May the day I was born be destroyed, and the night that said, “A healthy man[1] is conceived.”

Job 3:4 If only that day had turned to darkness! May God above not care about it, or light shine on it.

Job 3:5 May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it. May the darkens of day scare it away.

Job 3:6 If only darkness had taken that night away! May it not appear among the days of the year or be listed in the calendar.

Job 3:7 Yes, may that night be barren; may no joyful shout be heard in it.

Job 3:8 Let those who curse days condemn it, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.

Job 3:9 May its morning stars grow dark. May it wait for daylight but have none; may it not see the breaking of dawn.

Job 3:10 For that night did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb and hide sorrow from my eyes.

Job 3:11 Why was I not stillborn? Why didn’t I die as I came from the womb?

Job 3:12 Why did the knees receive me, and why were there breasts for me to nurse?

Job 3:13 Now I would certainly be lying down in peace; I would be asleep. Then I would be at rest

Job 3:14 with the kings and counselors of the land, who rebuilt ruined cities for themselves,

Job 3:15 or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.

Job 3:16 Or why was I not hidden like a miscarried child, like infants who never see daylight?

Job 3:17 There the wicked cease to make trouble, and there the weary find rest.

Job 3:18 The prisoners are completely at rest; they do not hear a taskmaster’s voice.

Job 3:19 Both small and significant are there, and the slave is set free from his master.

Job 3:20 Why is light given to one burdened with grief, and life to those whose throat is bitter,

Job 3:21 who wait for death, but it does not come, and search for it more than for hidden treasure,

Job 3:22 who are filled with much joy and are glad when they reach the grave?

Job 3:23 Why is life given to a healthy man whose path is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

Job 3:24 I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water.

Job 3:25 Because the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has happened to me.

Job 3:26 I cannot relax or be calm; I have no rest, because turmoil has come.

---

[1] גֶּבֶר = healthy man. Job 3:3, 23; 4:17; 10:5; 14:10, 14; 16:21; 22:2; 33:17, 29; 34:7, 9, 34; 38:3; 40:7.

links:

death no escape
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Sunday, July 24, 2016
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Thursday, July 5, 2018
trapped

The Job shelf in my library