JOIN THE JOURNEY JR.

Job 12

Job’s Fourth Speech: A Response to Zophar

1Then Job spoke again:

2“You people really know everything, don’t you?

And when you die, wisdom will die with you!

3Well, I know a few things myself—

and you’re no better than I am.

Who doesn’t know these things you’ve been saying?

4Yet my friends laugh at me,

for I call on God and expect an answer.

I am a just and blameless man,

yet they laugh at me.

5People who are at ease mock those in trouble.

They give a push to people who are stumbling.

6But robbers are left in peace,

and those who provoke God live in safety—

though God keeps them in his power.*

7“Just ask the animals, and they will teach you.

Ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.

8Speak to the earth, and it will instruct you.

Let the fish in the sea speak to you.

9For they all know

that my disaster* has come from the hand of the Lord.

10For the life of every living thing is in his hand,

and the breath of every human being.

11The ear tests the words it hears

just as the mouth distinguishes between foods.

12Wisdom belongs to the aged,

and understanding to the old.

Job 15

Eliphaz’s Second Response to Job

1Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

2“A wise man wouldn’t answer with such empty talk!

You are nothing but a windbag.

3The wise don’t engage in empty chatter.

What good are such words?

4Have you no fear of God,

no reverence for him?

5Your sins are telling your mouth what to say.

Your words are based on clever deception.

6Your own mouth condemns you, not I.

Your own lips testify against you.

7“Were you the first person ever born?

Were you born before the hills were made?

8Were you listening at God’s secret council?

Do you have a monopoly on wisdom?

9What do you know that we don’t?

What do you understand that we do not?

10On our side are aged, gray-haired men

much older than your father!

11“Is God’s comfort too little for you?

Is his gentle word not enough?

12What has taken away your reason?

What has weakened your vision,*

13that you turn against God

and say all these evil things?

14Can any mortal be pure?

Can anyone born of a woman be just?

15Look, God does not even trust the angels.*

Even the heavens are not absolutely pure in his sight.

16How much less pure is a corrupt and sinful person

with a thirst for wickedness!

17“If you will listen, I will show you.

I will answer you from my own experience.

18And it is confirmed by the reports of wise men

who have heard the same thing from their fathers—

19from those to whom the land was given

long before any foreigners arrived.