Day 159 of 364

^26:1Then Job answered, ^26:2“How have you helped him who is without power! How have you saved the arm that has no strength! ^26:3How have you counseled him who has no wisdom, and plentifully declared sound knowledge! ^26:4To whom have you uttered words? Whose spirit came out of you? ^26:5“The departed spirits tremble, those beneath the waters and all that live in them. ^26:6Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering. ^26:7He stretches out the north over empty space, and hangs the earth on nothing. ^26:8He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not burst under them. ^26:9He encloses the face of his throne, and spreads his cloud on it. ^26:10He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters, and to the confines of light and darkness. ^26:11The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his rebuke. ^26:12He stirs up the sea with his power, and by his understanding he strikes through Rahab. ^26:13By his Spirit the heavens are garnished. His hand has pierced the swift serpent. ^26:14Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. How small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?” ^27:1Job again took up his parable, and said, ^27:2“As God lives, who has taken away my right, the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter ^27:3(for the length of my life is still in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils); ^27:4surely my lips will not speak unrighteousness, neither will my tongue utter deceit. ^27:5Far be it from me that I should justify you. Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me. ^27:6I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My heart will not reproach me so long as I live. ^27:7“Let my enemy be as the wicked. Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous. ^27:8For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life? ^27:9Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him? ^27:10Will he delight himself in the Almighty, and call on God at all times? ^27:11I will teach you about the hand of God. I will not conceal that which is with the Almighty. ^27:12Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain? ^27:13“This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty. ^27:14If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring will not be satisfied with bread. ^27:15Those who remain of him will be buried in death. His widows will make no lamentation. ^27:16Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay; ^27:17he may prepare it, but the just will put it on, and the innocent will divide the silver. ^27:18He builds his house as the moth, as a booth which the watchman makes. ^27:19He lies down rich, but he will not do so again. He opens his eyes, and he is not. ^27:20Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in the night. ^27:21The east wind carries him away, and he departs. It sweeps him out of his place. ^27:22For it hurls at him, and does not spare, as he flees away from his hand. ^27:23Men will clap their hands at him, and will hiss him out of his place. ^28:1“Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine. ^28:2Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted out of the ore. ^28:3Man sets an end to darkness, and searches out, to the furthest bound, the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness. ^28:4He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth. ^28:5As for the earth, out of it comes bread. Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire. ^28:6Sapphires come from its rocks. It has dust of gold. ^28:7That path no bird of prey knows, neither has the falcon’s eye seen it. ^28:8The proud animals have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed by there. ^28:9He puts his hand on the flinty rock, and he overturns the mountains by the roots. ^28:10He cuts out channels among the rocks. His eye sees every precious thing. ^28:11He binds the streams that they don’t trickle. The thing that is hidden he brings out to light. ^28:12“But where will wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding? ^28:13Man doesn’t know its price, and it isn’t found in the land of the living. ^28:14The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’ The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’ ^28:15It can’t be gotten for gold, neither will silver be weighed for its price. ^28:16It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. ^28:17Gold and glass can’t equal it, neither will it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold. ^28:18No mention will be made of coral or of crystal. Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies. ^28:19The topaz of Ethiopia will not equal it. It won’t be valued with pure gold. ^28:20Where then does wisdom come from? Where is the place of understanding? ^28:21Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky. ^28:22Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’ ^28:23“God understands its way, and he knows its place. ^28:24For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole sky. ^28:25He establishes the force of the wind. Yes, he measures out the waters by measure. ^28:26When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder, ^28:27then he saw it, and declared it. He established it, yes, and searched it out. ^28:28To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’” ^29:1Job again took up his parable, and said, ^29:2“Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me; ^29:3when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I walked through darkness, ^29:4as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was in my tent, ^29:5when the Almighty was yet with me, and my children were around me, ^29:6when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out streams of oil for me, ^29:7when I went out to the city gate, when I prepared my seat in the street. ^29:8The young men saw me and hid themselves. The aged rose up and stood. ^29:9The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth. ^29:10The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth. ^29:11For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me, it commended me, ^29:12because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him, ^29:13the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. ^29:14I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem. ^29:15I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. ^29:16I was a father to the needy. I researched the cause of him whom I didn’t know. ^29:17I broke the jaws of the unrighteous and plucked the prey out of his teeth. ^29:18Then I said, ‘I will die in my own house, I will count my days as the sand. ^29:19My root is spread out to the waters. The dew lies all night on my branch. ^29:20My glory is fresh in me. My bow is renewed in my hand.’ ^29:21“Men listened to me, waited, and kept silence for my counsel. ^29:22After my words they didn’t speak again. My speech fell on them. ^29:23They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with the spring rain. ^29:24I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn’t reject the light of my face. ^29:25I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, as one who comforts the mourners.