Job 33:1-21 ▼

1 “However now, Job, please hear my speech, And give ear to all my words.

2 Behold now, I open my mouth; My tongue in my mouth speaks.

3 My words are from the uprightness of my heart, And my lips speak knowledge sincerely.

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

5 Respond to me if you can; Arrange yourselves before me, take your stand.

6 Behold, I belong to God like you; I too have been formed out of the clay.

7 Behold, no dread of me should terrify you, Nor should my pressure weigh heavily on you.

8 “Surely you have spoken in my hearing, And I have heard the sound of your speech:

9 ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am innocent, and there is no guilt in me.

10 Behold, He finds reasons for opposition against me; He counts me as His enemy.

11 He puts my feet in the stocks; He keeps watch over all my paths.’

12 Behold, let me answer you; you are not right in this, For God is greater than mortal man.

13 “Why do you contend against Him? For He does not give an answer for all His doings.

14 Indeed God speaks once, Or twice, yet no one perceives it.

15 In a dream, a vision of the night, When deep sleep falls on men, While they slumber in their beds,

16 Then He opens the ears of men, And seals in their discipline,

17 That He may turn man aside from his conduct, And keep man from pride;

18 He holds back his soul from the pit, And his life from passing over to death by a weapon.

19 “Man is also reproved with pain on his bed, And with unceasing contention in his bones,

20 So that his life loathes bread, And his soul favorite food.

21 His flesh wastes away from sight, And his bones which were not seen stick out.