Study Desk

"Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me,

as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent,

Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me, they have cast off restraint in my presence.

God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.

What would be my portion from God above and my heritage from the Almighty on high?

(Let me be weighed in a just balance, and let God know my integrity!)

what then shall I do when God rises up? When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him?

For I was in terror of calamity from God, and I could not have faced his majesty.

this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I would have been false to God above.

Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself rather than God.

Beware lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom; God may vanquish him, not a man.'

The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Behold, I am toward God as you are; I too was pinched off from a piece of clay.

"Behold, in this you are not right. I will answer you, for God is greater than man.

For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it.

then man prays to God, and he accepts him; he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he restores to man his righteousness.

"Behold, God does all these things, twice, three times, with a man,

For Job has said, ‘I am in the right, and God has taken away my right;

For he has said, ‘It profits a man nothing that he should take delight in God.'

"Therefore, hear me, you men of understanding: far be it from God that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty that he should do wrong.