Day 224 of 730

¹Then Zophar, the Naamathite, answered,

²"Shouldn't the multitude of words be answered? Should a man full of talk be justified?

³Should your boastings make men hold their peace? When you mock, shall no man make you ashamed?

⁴For you say, 'My doctrine is pure. I am clean in your eyes.'

⁵But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against you,

⁶that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.

⁷"Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?

⁸They are high as heaven. What can you do? They are deeper than Sheol. What can you know?

⁹Its measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.

¹⁰If he passes by, or confines, or convenes a court, then who can oppose him?

¹¹For he knows false men. He sees iniquity also, even though he doesn't consider it.

¹²An empty-headed man becomes wise when a man is born as a wild donkey's colt.

¹³"If you set your heart aright, stretch out your hands toward him.

¹⁴If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. Do not let unrighteousness dwell in your tents.

¹⁵Surely then you shall lift up your face without spot; Yes, you shall be steadfast, and shall not fear:

¹⁶for you shall forget your misery. You shall remember it as waters that are passed away.

¹⁷Life shall be clearer than the noonday. Though there is darkness, it shall be as the morning.

¹⁸You shall be secure, because there is hope. Yes, you shall search, and shall take your rest in safety.

¹⁹Also you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. Yes, many shall court your favor.

²⁰But the eyes of the wicked shall fail. They shall have no way to flee. Their hope shall be the giving up of the spirit."

¹Then Job answered,

²"No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.

³But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Yes, who doesn't know such things as these?

⁴I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.

⁵In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune. It is ready for them whose foot slips.

⁶The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their God in their hands.

⁷"But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you.

⁸Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you. The fish of the sea shall declare to you.

⁹Who doesn't know that in all these, the hand of the Lord has done this,

¹⁰in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?

¹¹Doesn't the ear try words, even as the palate tastes its food?

¹²With aged men is wisdom, in length of days understanding.

¹³"With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.

¹⁴Behold, he breaks down, and it can't be built again. He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.

¹⁵Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up. Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.

¹⁶With him is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his.

¹⁷He leads counselors away stripped. He makes judges fools.

¹⁸He loosens the bond of kings. He binds their waist with a belt.

¹⁹He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.

²⁰He removes the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the elders.

²¹He pours contempt on princes, and loosens the belt of the strong.

²²He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death.

²³He increases the nations, and he destroys them. He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.

²⁴He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.

²⁵They grope in the dark without light. He makes them stagger like a drunken man.

¹God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?

²Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance; Mount Zion, in which you have lived.

³Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.

⁴Your adversaries have roared in the midst of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs.

⁵They behaved like men wielding axes, cutting through a thicket of trees.

⁶Now they break all its carved work down with hatchet and hammers.

⁷They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name.

⁸They said in their heart, "We will crush them completely." They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshiped.

⁹We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.

¹⁰How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?

¹¹Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it out of your pocket and consume them!

¹²Yet God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.

¹³You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.

¹⁴You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.

¹⁵You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.

¹⁶The day is yours, the night is also yours. You have prepared the light and the sun.

¹⁷You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter.

¹⁸Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Lord. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.

¹⁹Do not deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Do not forget the life of your poor forever.

²⁰Honor your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.

²¹Do not let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name.

²²Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day.

²³Do not forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.

¹My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you.

²Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.

³Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Tell wisdom, "You are my sister." Call understanding your relative,

⁵that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.

⁶For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice.

⁷I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,

⁸passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house,

⁹in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness.

¹⁰Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent.

¹¹She is loud and defiant. Her feet do not stay in her house.

¹²Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner.

¹³So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him:

¹⁴"Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. This day I have paid my vows.

¹⁵Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you.

¹⁶I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let's take our fill of loving until the morning. Let's solace ourselves with loving.

¹⁹For my husband isn't at home. He has gone on a long journey.

²⁰He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon."

²¹With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.

²²He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose.

²³Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn't know that it will cost his life.

²⁴Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Do not let your heart turn to her ways. Do not go astray in her paths,

²⁶for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.