The Reading
Job 8
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,
"How long will you say these things,
and the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?
Does God pervert justice,
or Shaddai pervert righteousness?
If your children sinned against him,
then he sent them into the power of their transgression.
If you yourself would seek God,
then you would plead to Shaddai for grace.
If you are pure and upright,
indeed, now he will rouse himself for you,
and he will restore your righteous abode.
Though your beginning was small,
your end will be very great.
"Indeed, please inquire of former generations,
and consider what their ancestors have found,
for we are of yesterday, and we do not know,
for our days on earth are a shadow.
Will they themselves not teach you and tell you
and utter words from their heart?
Can papyrus grow tall where there is not a marsh?
Will reeds flourish without water?
While it is in its flower and is not plucked,
yet it withers before all grass.
So are the paths of all who forget God;
and the hope of the godless will perish,
whose confidence is cut off
and whose trust is a spider's house.
He will lean himself against his house, but it will not stand;
he will take hold of it, but it will not endure.
He is thriving before the sun,
and his plant shoots spread over his garden.
His roots twine over a stone heap;
he sees a house of stone.
If he destroys him from his place,
then it deceives him, saying, 'I have never seen you.'
Look, this is the joy of his way,
and from dust others will spring up.
"Look, God will not reject the blameless,
and he will not uphold the hand of evildoers.
Yet he will fill your mouth with laughter
and your lips with a shout of joy.
Those who hate you will be clothed with shame,
and the tent of the wicked will be no more."
Job 9
Then Job answered and said,
"Truly I know that it is so,
but how can a human being be just before God?
If he wants to contend with him,
he cannot answer him one time in a thousand.
He is wise in heart and mighty in strength;
who has resisted him and succeeded?
"He is the one who moves mountains, and they do not know how,
who overturns them in his anger.
He is the one who shakes the earth from its place,
and its pillars tremble.
He is the one who commands the sun, and it does not rise,
and he seals up the stars.
He is the one who alone stretches out the heavens
and who tramples on the waves of the sea.
He is the one who made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.
He is the one who does great things beyond understanding
and marvelous things beyond number.
"If he passes by me, I would not see him;
and if he should move on, I would not recognize him.
If he would snatch away, who could turn him?
Who could say to him, 'What are you doing?'
God will not turn back his anger;
beneath him the helpers of Rahab bow.
How much less can I myself answer him?
How can I choose my words with him,
whom I cannot answer, even though I am righteous?
From my judge I must implore grace.
If I summon him, and he should answer me,
I do not believe that he will listen to my voice—
who crushes me with a tempest
and multiplies my wounds without cause.
He will not allow me to catch my breath;
rather, he will fill me with bitterness.
If it is a matter of strength, look, he is mighty.
But if it is a matter of justice, who can summon me?
Even though I am righteous, my mouth will condemn me;
even though I am blameless, yet it would pronounce me guilty.
"I am blameless; I do not care about myself;
I loathe my life.
It is all one; therefore I say,
'He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.'
When the whip kills suddenly,
he mocks at the despair of the innocent.
The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
he covers the face of its judge—
if it is not he, then who is it?
"And my days are swifter than a runner;
they flee away; they do not see good.
They go by like papyrus skiffs,