August 12 – Job 23 and 24 from the Old Testament

Job 23 and 24 – Job’s Reply to Eliphaz

23:1 Then Job answered:

23:2 “Even today my complaint is still bitter;

his hand is heavy despite my groaning.

23:3 O that I knew where I might find him,

that I could come to his place of residence!

23:4 I would lay out my case before him

and fill my mouth with arguments.

23:5 I would know with what words he would answer me,

and understand what he would say to me.

23:6 Would he contend with me with great power?

No, he would only pay attention to me.

23:7 There an upright person

could present his case before him,

and I would be delivered forever from my judge.

The Inaccessibility and Power of God

23:8 “If I go to the east, he is not there,

and to the west, yet I do not perceive him.

23:9 In the north when he is at work,

I do not see him;

when he turns to the south,

I see no trace of him.

23:10 But he knows the pathway that I take;

if he tested me, I would come forth like gold.

23:11 My feet have followed his steps closely;

I have kept to his way and have not turned aside.

23:12 I have not departed from the commands of his lips;

I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my allotted portion.

23:13 But he is unchangeable, and who can change him?

Whatever he has desired, he does.

23:14 For he fulfills his decree against me,

and many such things are his plans.

23:15 That is why I am terrified in his presence;

when I consider, I am afraid because of him.

23:16 Indeed, God has made my heart faint;

the Almighty has terrified me.

23:17 Yet I have not been silent because of the darkness,

because of the thick darkness

that covered my face.

The Apparent Indifference of God

24:1 “Why are times not appointed by the Almighty?

Why do those who know him not see his days?

24:2 Men move boundary stones;

they seize the flock and pasture them.

24:3 They drive away the orphan’s donkey;

they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.

24:4 They turn the needy from the pathway,

and the poor of the land hide themselves together.

24:5 Like wild donkeys in the desert

they go out to their labor,

seeking diligently for food;

the wasteland provides food for them

and for their children.

24:6 They reap fodder in the field,

and glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

24:7 They spend the night naked because they lack clothing;

they have no covering against the cold.

24:8 They are soaked by mountain rains

and huddle in the rocks because they lack shelter.

24:9 The fatherless child is snatched from the breast,

the infant of the poor is taken as a pledge.

24:10 They go about naked, without clothing,

and go hungry while they carry the sheaves.

24:11 They press out the olive oil between the rows of olive trees;

they tread the winepresses while they are thirsty.

24:12 From the city the dying groan,

and the wounded cry out for help,

but God charges no one with wrongdoing.

24:13 There are those who rebel against the light;

they do not know its ways

and they do not stay on its paths.

24:14 Before daybreak the murderer rises up;

he kills the poor and the needy;

in the night he is like a thief.

24:15 And the eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight,

thinking, ‘No eye can see me,’

and covers his face with a mask.

24:16 In the dark the robber breaks into houses,

but by day they shut themselves in;

they do not know the light.

24:17 For all of them, the morning is to them

like deep darkness;

they are friends with the terrors of darkness.

 

24:18 “You say, ‘He is foam on the face of the waters;

their portion of the land is cursed

so that no one goes to their vineyard.

24:19 The drought as well as the heat carry away

the melted snow;

so the grave takes away those who have sinned.

24:20 The womb forgets him,

the worm feasts on him,

no longer will he be remembered.

Like a tree, wickedness will be broken down.

24:21 He preys on the barren and childless woman,

and does not treat the widow well.

24:22 But God drags off the mighty by his power;

when God rises up against him, he has no faith in his life.

24:23 God may let them rest in a feeling of security,

but he is constantly watching all their ways.

24:24 They are exalted for a little while,

and then they are gone,

they are brought low like all others,

and gathered in,

and like a head of grain they are cut off.’

 

24:25 “If this is not so, who can prove me a liar

and reduce my words to nothing?”