Henry: Welcome To Immerse: The Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day three hundred and nineteen
. Then Zhar the Neite replied to job.
Shouldn't someone answer this?
Torrent of words is a person proved innocent just by a lot of talking.
Should I remain silent while you babble on when you mock God?
Shouldn't someone make you ashamed?
You claim my beliefs are pure and I am clean in the sight of God.
If only God would speak, if only he would tell you what he thinks, if only
he would tell you the secrets of wisdom.
For true wisdom is not a simple matter.
Listen, God is doubtless punishing you far less than you deserve.
Can you solve the mysteries of God?
Can you discover everything about the Almighty such knowledge is higher
than the heavens, and who are you?
It is deeper than the underworld.
What do you know?
It is broader than the earth and wider than the sea.
If God comes and puts a person in prison or calls the court to order, who can
stop him for he knows those who are false and he takes note of all their sins.
An empty headed person won't become wise any more than a wild
donkey can bear a human child.
If only you would prepare your heart and lift up your hands to him in prayer.
Get rid of your sins and leave all iniquity behind you, then your face
will brighten With innocence, you will be strong and free of fear.
You will forget your misery.
It will be like water flowing away.
Your life will be brighter than the noon day.
Even Darkness will be as bright as morning.
Having hope will give you courage.
You will be protected and will rest in safety.
You will lie down unafraid and many will look to you for help,
but the wicked will be blinded.
They will have no escape.
Their only hope is death.
Then job spoke again.
You people really know everything, don't you?
And when you die, wisdom will die with you.
Well, I know a few things myself and you are no better than I am.
Who doesn't know these things you've been saying.
Yet my friends laugh at me.
For I call on God and expect an answer.
I am a just and blameless man, yet they laugh at me.
People who are at ease mock those in trouble.
They give a push to people who are stumbling, but robbers are left in peace,
and those who provoke God live in safety, though God keeps them in his power.
Just ask the animals and they will teach you.
Ask the birds of the sky.
They will tell you, speak to the earth and it will instruct you.
Let the fish in the sea speak to you for They all know that my disaster has come
from the hand of the Lord, for the life of every living thing is in his hand
and the breath of every human being.
The ear tests, the words it hears just as the mouth distinguishes between foods.
Wisdom belongs to the aged and understanding to the old.
But true wisdom and power are found in God.
Counsel and understanding are his.
What he destroys cannot be rebuilt.
When he puts someone in prison, there is no escape.
If he holds back the rain, the earth becomes a desert.
If he releases the waters, they flood the earth.
Yes.
Strength and wisdom are his deceivers and deceived are both in his power.
He leads counselors away, stripped of good judgment wise.
Judges become fools.
He removes the royal robe of kings.
They are led away with ropes around their waist.
He leads priests away, stripped of status.
He overthrows those with long years in power.
He silences the trusted advisor and removes the insight of the elders.
He pours disgrace upon princes.
And disarms the strong, he uncovers mysteries hidden in darkness.
He brings light to the deepest gloom.
He builds up nations and he destroys them.
He expands nations and he abandons them.
He strips kings of understanding and leaves them wandering
in a pathless wasteland.
They grope in the darkness without a light.
He makes them stagger like drunkards.
Look.
I have seen all this with my own eyes and heard it with my
own ears, and now I understand.
I know as much as you do, you are no better than I am.
As for me, I would speak directly to the Almighty.
I want to argue my case with God himself.
As for you, you smear me with lies.
As physicians, you are worthless quacks.
If only you could be silent.
That's the wisest thing you could do.
Listen to my charge.
Pay attention to my arguments.
Are you defending God with lies?
Do you make your dishonest arguments for his sake?
Will you slant your testimony in his favor?
Will you argue God's case for him?
What will happen when he finds out what you are doing?
Can you fool him as easily as you fool people?
No, you'll be in trouble with him if you secretly slant
your testimony in his favor.
Doesn't his majesty terrify you?
Doesn't your fear of him overwhelm you?
Your platitudes are as valuable as ashes.
Your defense is as fragile as a clay pot.
Be silent now and leave me alone.
Let me speak and I will face the consequences.
Why should I put myself in mortal danger and take my life in my own hands?
God might kill me, but I have no other hope.
I am going to argue my case with him, but this is what will save me.
I am not godless.
If I were, I could not stand before him.
Listen closely to what I am about to say.
Hear me out.
I have prepared my case.
I will be proved innocent who can argue with me over this.
And if you prove me wrong, I will remain silent and die.
Oh God.
Grant me these two things and then I will be able to face you.
Remove your heavy hand from me and don't terrify me with your awesome presence.
Now summon me and I will answer, or let me speak to you and you reply.
Tell me what have I done wrong?
Show me my rebellion and my sin.
Why do you turn away from me?
Why do you treat me as your enemy?
Would you terrify a leaf blown by the wind?
Would you chase dry straw?
You write bitter accusations against me and bring up all the sins of my youth.
You put my feet in stocks.
You examine all my paths.
You trace all my footprints.
I waste away like rotting wood, like a moth eaten coat.
How frail is humanity?
How short is life?
How full of trouble.
We blossom like a flower and then wither like a passing shadow.
We quickly disappear.
Must you keep an eye on such a frail creature and demand
and accounting from me?
Who can bring purity out of an impure person?
No one.
You have decided the length of our lives.
You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer,
so leave us alone and let us rest.
We are like hired hands, so let us finish our work in peace.
Even a tree has more hope.
If it has cut down, it will sprout again and grow new branches.
Though it's roots have grown old in the earth and its stumped, decays at
the scent of water, it will bud and sprout again like a new seedling.
But when people die, their strength is gone.
They breathe their last and then where are they?
As water evaporates from a lake and a river disappears in drought, people
are laid to rest and do not rise again until the heavens are no more.
They will not wake up nor be roused from their sleep.
I wish you would hide me in the grave and forget me there
until your anger has passed.
But mark your calendar to think of me again.
Can the dead live again?
If so, this would give me hope through all my years of struggle, and I would
eagerly await the release of death.
You would call and I would answer, and you would yearn for me, your handiwork.
For then you would guard my steps instead of watching for my sins,
my sins would be sealed in a pouch and you would cover my guilt.
But instead, as mountains fall and crumble and as rocks fall from a
cliff, as water wears away, the stones and floods wash away the soil.
So you destroy people's hope.
You always overpower them, and they pass from the scene.
You disfigure them in death and send them away.
They never know if their children grow up in honor or sink to insignificance.
They suffer painfully.
Their life is full of trouble.
Then pha, the Timon night replied, A wise man wouldn't answer with such empty talk.
You are nothing but a windbag.
The wise.
Don't engage in empty chatter.
A what good or such words have you.
No fear of God, no reverence for him.
Your sins are telling your mouth what to say.
Your words are based on clever deception.
Your own mouth condemns you, not I.
Your own lips testify against you.
Were you the first person ever born?
Were you born before the hills were made?
Were you listening at God's secret?
Counsel, do you have a monopoly on wisdom?
What do you know that we don't?
What do you understand that we do not on our side are aged gray-haired
men, much older than your father?
Is God's comfort too little for you?
Is his gentle word, not enough.
What has taken away your reason?
What has weakened your vision that you turn against God and
say all these evil things?
Can any mortal be pure?
Can anyone born of a woman be just, look, God does not even trust the angels.
Even the heavens are not absolutely pure in his sight.
How much less pure is a corrupt and sinful person with a thirst for wickedness?
If you listen, I will show you.
I will answer you from my own experience, and it is confirmed by
the reports of wise men who have heard the same thing from their fathers,
from those to whom the land was given long before any foreigners arrived.
The wicked rive in pain throughout their lives, years of trouble
are stored up for the ruthless.
The sound of terror rings in their ears, and even on good days, they
fear the attack of the destroyer.
They dare not go out into the darkness for fear.
They will be murdered.
They wander around saying, where can I find bread?
They know their day of destruction is near.
That dark day terrifies them.
They live in distress and anguish like a king preparing for battle.
For they shake their fists at God defying the almighty holding their strong shields,
they defiantly charge against him.
These wicked people are heavy and prosperous.
Their wastes bulge with fat, but their cities will be ruined.
They will live in abandoned houses that are ready to tumble down.
Their riches will not last and their wealth will not endure.
Their possessions will no longer spread across the horizon.
They will not escape the darkness.
The burning sun will wither their chutes and the breath of God will destroy them.
Let them no longer fool themselves by trusting in empty riches.
For emptiness will be their only reward.
They will be cut down in the prime of life.
Their branches will never again be green.
They will be like a vine whose grapes are harvested too early,
like an olive tree that loses its blossoms before the fruit can form.
For the godless are barren.
Their homes enriched through bribery will burn.
They conceive trouble and give birth to evil.
Their womb produces deceit.
This concludes today's immerse reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.