Study Desk

But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Should we receive good from God and not receive trouble?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Now when Job's three friends heard of all this trouble that had come upon him, they came each from his own place. They were Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They agreed to meet together to come to share Job's sorrow and comfort him.

Then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very bad.

After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day he was born.

The small and the great are there. And the servant is free from his owner.

By the breath of God they are destroyed. They are destroyed by the wind of His anger.

‘Can man be right more than God? Can a man be pure more than his Maker?

He puts no trust even in His servants. He finds mistakes among His angels.

I have seen the fool taking root, but right away his house was cursed.

His sons are far from being safe. They are destroyed in the gate, and there is no one to help them.

The hungry eat the food of his field. They take it even out of the thorns. And the thirsty want his riches.

He punishes, but He gives comfort. He hurts, but His hands heal.

If only God were willing to crush me, that He would let His hand loose and destroy me!

"Is not man made to work on earth? Are not his days like the days of a man paid to work?

Like a servant who desires to be out of the sun, and like a working man who waits for his pay,

He will not return to his house, and his place will not know him any more.

The spider trusts in his house, but it falls apart. He holds on to it, but it does not hold.

He is full of strength in the sunshine, and his branches spread out over his garden.

His roots grow around rocks and they work their way among the stones.

If he is taken from his place, then it will turn away from him, saying, ‘I have never seen you.'