Study Desk

For God made my heart weak, And the Almighty terrifies me;

The dying groan in the city, And the souls of the wounded cry out; Yet God does not charge them with wrong.

"But God draws the mighty away with His power; He rises up, but no man is sure of life.

How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?

"As God lives, who has taken away my justice, And the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,

As long as my breath is in me, And the breath of God in my nostrils,

For what is the hope of the hypocrite, Though he may gain much, If God takes away his life?

Will God hear his cry When trouble comes upon him?

Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call on God?

"I will teach you about the hand of God; What is with the Almighty I will not conceal.

"This is the portion of a wicked man with God, And the heritage of oppressors, received from the Almighty:

God understands its way, And He knows its place.

"Oh, that I were as in months past, As in the days when God watched over me;

Just as I was in the days of my prime, When the friendly counsel of God was over my tent;

For what is the allotment of God from above, And the inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

Let me be weighed on honest scales, That God may know my integrity.

What then shall I do when God rises up? When He punishes, how shall I answer Him?

For destruction from God is a terror to me, And because of His magnificence I cannot endure.

This also would be an iniquity deserving of judgment, For I would have denied God who is above.

Then the wrath of Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was aroused against Job; his wrath was aroused because he justified himself rather than God.