Episode 165: Job's friends come to visit

Job 3-25

3 ^1-3 After this, Job said, "I curse the day I was born. ¹¹ I wish I’d have died in childbirth."

4 ¹ Eliphaz said to Job,

⁵ Only guilty people die.

5 ¹⁷ You should be happy that God is correcting you. Don't despise him for it.

¹⁸ God hurts and wounds people, but he heals them later.

6 ¹ Job responded by saying,

⁴ God has shot me with arrows, poisoned my spirit, and terrorized my soul.

⁶ Can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt? Is there any taste in the white of an egg?

²⁴ Tell me what I've done wrong.

^29-30 But don't judge me for things I haven't done or for things I haven't said.

7 ⁵ My body is covered with worms and dirt clods. My skin is broken and loathsome.

⁷ My life is ending. I will see nothing more that is good.

⁹ There is no life after death. Whoever goes to the grave comes up no more.

¹¹ So I will speak and complain about my affliction.

¹⁷ Why do you spend so much of your time tormenting people?

²⁰ If I've sinned, why does that matter to you?

²¹ Why not just forgive me before I die?

8 ¹ Bildad said to Job,

³ Does God pervert justice?

⁴ If God killed your children because they misbehaved, they deserved it.

9 ¹ Job said to Bildad,

¹⁷ God torments me for no reason.

¹⁸ He won't let me breathe.

²² He destroys the good and the bad.

²³ He laughs at the trial of the innocent.

²⁴ He gives the earth to evil people and hides the truth from judges.

10 ³ Is it good for God to oppress people, despise his creation, or advise and assist wicked people?

11 ¹ Zophar said to Job,

⁶ You’re getting off easy. God should punish you more than this.

12 ¹ Job responded by saying,

² You are wise, but your wisdom will die with you.

⁴ Just and upright people are laughed to scorn.

13 ⁴ You are lying, useless physicians.

⁵ You'd be wise to stop talking.

⁷ Will you lie for God?

¹⁵ God may kill me, but I won't back down from him.

14 ¹ Men are born from women.

⁴ So men are unclean.

¹⁰ Death is forever. There is no afterlife.

15 ¹ Eliphaz said to Job,

⁵ Your own words prove that you are guilty.

¹³ You've turned your spirit against God by letting such words go out of your mouth.

¹⁴ How could a man be clean or righteous when he is born of a woman?

16 ¹ Job said to Eliphaz,

² Yeah, I've heard all of this before.

You guys are miserable comforters.

⁷ God has made me weary, and you are bad company.

⁸ You've filled me with wrinkles.

⁹ God hates me. He tears me with his wrath and gnashes me with his teeth.

¹² He’s taken me by the neck and shaken me to pieces.

¹³ He used me as target practice for his archers and poured my guts on the ground.

¹⁴ He has trampled me like a giant.

¹⁵ I’ve sewed sackcloth on my skin and defiled my horn in the dust.

17 ¹ My breath is corrupt. I'm ready to die.

18 ¹ Bildad said, "Will you ever stop talking and let us speak?"

19 ¹ Job said,

¹⁷ My breath is strange to my wife.

¹⁸ Young children hate me.

¹⁹ My closest friends have turned against me.

²⁰ I escaped with the skin of my teeth.

²¹ Have pity on me, because God has touched me with his hand.

²² Why do you join God in persecuting me?

20 ¹ Zophar said to Job,

⁷ Wicked people will perish forever like their own dung.

21 ¹ Job said,

⁷ Why do the wicked live long?

²³ One man dies peacefully, with his breasts full of milk.

²⁵ Another dies in bitterness, never having experienced pleasure.

²⁶ Both will lie in the dust, covered with worms.

22 ¹ Eliphaz said,

⁴ Is God punishing you because you fear him?

⁵ No, he's punishing you because of your great wickedness and infinite iniquities.

23 ¹ Job said,

³ If I knew where to find God, I'd go there to argue my case in front of him.

⁷ And he would listen to me and set me free.

⁸ But I can't find God anywhere.

24 ²⁵ If what I say isn't true, show me where I am wrong.

25 ¹ Bildad said,

² Dominion and fear are with God.

⁴ How can a man be clean who is born of a woman?

⁵ Not even the stars are pure in his sight.

⁶ Men are worms, and so is the son of man.