Finished with Job (long O sound Val!)

There's a lot, so I'm just getting right into it:

21:23-26 - (Job is speaking here)One person dies in full vigor, completely secure and at ease, well nourished in body, bones rich with marrow.  Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having enjoyed anything good.  Side by side they lie in the dust, and worms cover them both.

22:4-11 - (One of Job's friends)Is it for your piety that he rebukes you and brings charges against you?  Is not your wickedness great?  Are not your sins endless?  You demanded security from your relatives for no reason; you stripped people of their clothing, leaving them naked.  You gave no water to the weary and you withheld food from the hungry, though you were a powerful man, owning land--an honored man, living on it.  And you sent widows away empty-handed and broke the strength of the fatherless.  That is why snares are all around you, why sudden peril terrifies you, why it is so dark you cannot see, and why a flood of water covers you.

22:19-26 - The righteous see their ruin and rejoice; the innocent mock them, saying, 'Surely our foes are destroyed, and fire devours their wealth.'  Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.  Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart.  If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored; If you remove wickedness far from your tent and assign your nuggets to the dust, your gold of Ophir to the rocks in the ravines, then the Almighty will be your gold, the choicest silver for you.  Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty and will lift up your face to God.

25:2-6 - (One of Job's other friends)Dominion and awe belong to God; he establishes order in the heights of heaven.  Can his forces be numbered?  On whom does his light not rise?  How then can a mortal be righteous before God?  How can one born of woman be pure?  If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes, how much less a mortal, who is but a maggot--a human being, who is only a worm!

27:11 & 12 - (Job again-he has been blaming God for everything bad that's happened to him)I will teach you about the power of God; the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal.  You have all seen this yourselves.  Why then this meaningless talk?

28:12 & 13 - (about wisdom)But where can wisdom be found?  Where does understanding dwell?  No mortal comprehends its worth; it cannot be found in the land of the living.

28:21-28 - (more of wisdom)It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing, concealed even from the birds in the sky.  Destruction and Death say, "Only a rumor of it has reached our ears."  God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells, for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.  When he established the force of the wind and measured out the waters, when he made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm, then he looked at wisdom and appraised it; he confirmed it and tested it.  And he said to the human race, "The fear of the Lord--that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding."

30:26 & 27 - (back to Job)Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness.  The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me.

31:6-11 & 15 - let God weigh me in honest scales and he will know that I am blameless--if my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has been led by my eyes, or if my hands have been defiled, then may others eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.  If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbor's door, then may my wife grind another man's grain, and may other men sleep with her.  For that would have been wicked, a sin to be judged.  Did not he who made me in the womb make them?  Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?

32:2-5 - (enter Elihu-he's heard enough)But Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became very angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God.  He was also angry with the three friends, because they had found no way to refute Job, and yet had condemned him.  Now Elihu had waited before speaking to Job because they were older than he.  But when he saw that the three men had nothing more to say, his anger was aroused.

33:4 & 5 - (Elihu speaks)The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almight give me life.  Answer me then, if you can; stand up and argue your case before me.

33:8-18 - But you have said in my hearing--I heard the very words--'I am pure, I have done no wrong; I am clean and free from sin.  Yet God has found fault with me; he considers me his enemy.  He fastens my feet in shackles; he keeps close watch on all my paths.'  But I tell you, in this you are not right, for God is greater than any mortal.  Why do you complain to him that he responds to no one's words?  For God does speak--now one way, now another--though no one perceives it.  In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn them from wrongdoing and keep them from pride, to preserve them from the pit, their lives from perishing by the sword.

34:5-15 - Job says, 'I am innocent, but God denies me justice.  Although I am right, I am considered a liar; although I am guiltless, his arrow inflicts an incurable wound.'  Is there anyone like Job, who drinks scorn like water?  He keeps company with evildoers; he associates with the wicked.  For he says, 'There is no profit in trying to please God.'  So listen to me, you men of understanding.  Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong.  He repays everyone for what they have done; he brings on them what their conduct deserves.  It is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice.  Who appointed him over the earth?  Who put him in charge of the whole world?  If it were his intention and he withdrew his spirit and breath, all humanity would perish together and mankind would return to the dust.

I think I will stop there today.  There is much, much more!  Even God says his piece, yeah!