Job 25

BILDAD SPEAKS
Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
2 Dominion and dread belong to him,
the one who establishes harmony in his heights.
3 Can his troops be numbered?
Does his light not shine on everyone?
4 How can a human be justified before God?
How can one born of woman be pure?
5 If even the moon does not shine
and the stars are not pure in his sight,
6 how much less a human, who is a maggot,
a son of man, who is a worm!

Job 26

JOB’S REPLY TO BILDAD
Then Job answered:
2 How you have helped the powerless
and delivered the arm that is weak!
3 How you have counseled the unwise
and abundantly provided insight!
4 With whom did you speak these words?
Whose breath came out of your mouth?
5 The departed spirits tremble
beneath the waters and all that inhabit them.
6 Sheol is naked before God,
and Abaddon has no covering.
7 He stretches the northern skies over empty space;
he hangs the earth on nothing.
8 He wraps up the water in his clouds,
yet the clouds do not burst beneath its weight.
9 He obscures the view of his throne,
spreading his cloud over it.
10 He laid out the horizon on the surface of the waters
at the boundary between light and darkness.
11 The pillars that hold up the sky tremble,
astounded at his rebuke.
12 By his power he stirred the sea,
and by his understanding he crushed Rahab.
13 By his breath the heavens gained their beauty;
his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
14 These are but the fringes of his ways;
how faint is the word we hear of him!
Who can understand his mighty thunder?

Job 27

Job continued his discourse, saying:
2 As God lives, who has deprived me of justice,
and the Almighty who has made me bitter,
3 as long as my breath is still in me
and the breath from God remains in my nostrils,
4 my lips will not speak unjustly,
and my tongue will not utter deceit.
5 I will never affirm that you are right.
I will maintain my integrity until I die.
6 I will cling to my righteousness and never let it go.
My conscience will not accuse me as long as I live!
7 May my enemy be like the wicked
and my opponent like the unjust.
8 For what hope does the godless person have when he is cut off,
when God takes away his life?
9 Will God hear his cry
when distress comes on him?
10 Will he delight in the Almighty?
Will he call on God at all times?
11 I will teach you about God’s power.
I will not conceal what the Almighty has planned.
12 All of you have seen this for yourselves,
why do you keep up this empty talk?
13 This is a wicked man’s lot from God,
the inheritance the ruthless receive from the Almighty.
14 Even if his children increase, they are destined for the sword;
his descendants will never have enough food.
15 Those who survive him will be buried by the plague,
yet their widows will not weep for them.
16 Though he piles up silver like dust
and heaps up fine clothing like clay —
17 he may heap it up, but the righteous will wear it,
and the innocent will divide up his silver.
18 The house he built is like a moth’s cocoon
or a shelter set up by a watchman.
19 He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more;
when he opens his eyes, it is gone.
20 Terrors overtake him like a flood;
a storm wind sweeps him away at night.
21 An east wind picks him up, and he is gone;
it carries him away from his place.
22 It blasts at him without mercy,
while he flees desperately from its force.
23 It claps its hands at him
and scoffs at him from its place.

Job 28

A HYMN TO WISDOM
Surely there is a mine for silver
and a place where gold is refined.
2 Iron is taken from the ground,
and copper is smelted from ore.
3 A miner puts an end to the darkness;
he probes the deepest recesses
for ore in the gloomy darkness.
4 He cuts a shaft far from human habitation,
in places unknown to those who walk above ground.
Suspended far away from people,
the miners swing back and forth.
5 Food may come from the earth,
but below the surface the earth is transformed as by fire.
6 Its rocks are a source of lapis lazuli,
containing flecks of gold.
7 No bird of prey knows that path;
no falcon’s eye has seen it.
8 Proud beasts have never walked on it;
no lion has ever prowled over it.
9 The miner uses a flint tool
and turns up ore from the root of the mountains.
10 He cuts out channels in the rocks,
and his eyes spot every treasure.
11 He dams up the streams from flowing
so that he may bring to light what is hidden.
12 But where can wisdom be found,
and where is understanding located?
13 No one can know its value,
since it cannot be found in the land of the living.
14 The ocean depths say, “It’s not in me,”
while the sea declares, “I don’t have it.”
15 Gold cannot be exchanged for it,
and silver cannot be weighed out for its price.
16 Wisdom cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,
in precious onyx or lapis lazuli.
17 Gold and glass do not compare with it,
and articles of fine gold cannot be exchanged for it.
18 Coral and quartz are not worth mentioning.
The price of wisdom is beyond pearls.
19 Topaz from Cush cannot compare with it,
and it cannot be valued in pure gold.
20 Where then does wisdom come from,
and where is understanding located?
21 It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing
and concealed from the birds of the sky.
22 Abaddon and Death say,
“We have heard news of it with our ears.”
23 But God understands the way to wisdom,
and he knows its location.
24 For he looks to the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
25 When God fixed the weight of the wind
and distributed the water by measure,
26 when he established a limit for the rain
and a path for the lightning,
27 he considered wisdom and evaluated it;
he established it and examined it.
28 He said to mankind,
“The fear of the Lord —that is wisdom.
And to turn from evil is understanding.”

— Job 25:1-28:28 (CSB)