Good fences make good neighbors---------------------------------Only respectful Christian commentary please.
All others IM for response and activity concerning subject matter.

Yes they do. I do believe the fence should be "low" enough for friendship and communication though. If that fails then you can raise the fence to whatever level you want.

There was a man in the country of Uz named Job.
He was a man of perfect integrity (or perfect integrity among Job's peers),
who feared God and turned away from evil (or who did not do evil things as a practice).
He had seven sons and three daughters. His estate included seven thousand sheep, three thousand
camels, five hundred yoke of oxen (or one thousand head of oxen), five hundred female donkeys (or female
donkeys to produce thousands of offspring), and a very large number of servants. Job was the greatest man among
all the people of the east.

His sons used to have banquets, each at his house in turn. they would send out invitations to their three sisters  to eat
and to drink with them. Whenever a round of banqueting was over, Job would send for his children and then as was
his practice ritually purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought:
Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts. This was Job's regular practice.

One day the sons of God (or the angels of God) came to present themselves (or came to present themselves by God's command) before the LORD, and Satan also came along with them. The LORD asked Satan, "Where have you come from?"
Satan then replied, " From roaming through the earth and walking around on it." Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered
My servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil."

Satan answered the LORD, "Does Job fear (or reverence or worship) God for nothing? Haven't You placed a hedge (or hedge of protecting strength) around him, his household, and everything that Job owns? You have blessed (or blessed by giving help to)
the work of his hands, and his possessions are spread out in the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything
That Job owns, and he will surely curse you (or be irreverent and blaspheme You) to Your face."

''Very Well," the LORD told Satan, "everything that Job owns is in your power. However, you must not lay a hand on Job himself.
So Satan went out from the LORD's presence.

The Archaic Old Testament Book of Job
Job 1: 1-12

Job and his Family: Satan is Compelled by God Concerning Job

One day when Job's sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brothers house, a messenger came to Job and reported: "While the oxen where plowing and the donkeys were grazing near by, the Sabeans (or marauding raiders from the southern desert) swooped down and took them away.
They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!"

He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported: "A lightning storm (Lit the fire of God) struck from heaven.
It burned up the sheep and the servants, and devoured them, and I alone have escaped to tell you!"
Now, that messenger was still speaking when yet another came and reported: "The Chaldeans (or raiders from the east) formed three bands, made a raid on the camels, and took them away.
They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!"

He was still speaking when yet a fourth messenger came and reported: "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house.
Suddenly a powerful wind (or desert storm of the sands)  swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house (or literally ate through the walls at the four corners of the house).
It collapsed on the young people so that they were all crushed and died, and I alone have escaped their fate to tell you!"

So Job stood up, tore his robe and shaved his head (or shaved his head in the prescribed way of mourning in sackcloth; and sitting in the abasement of ashes as nothing to be honored except by God).

He fell to the ground and worshipped, saying:

Naked I came
from my mother's womb,
and naked I will leave
this life (Lit will return there)
The LORD gives, and the LORD
takes away,
Praise the Name of the LORD.

Throughout all of this, Job did not sin or blame
God for any of these things which had happened to him.

An Archaic Old Testament Book of the Christian Bible
Job 1: 13-22
Satan's First Test of Job

One day (or on the appointed day) the sons of God came again to present themselves before the LORD and Satan also came with them to present himself before the LORD. The LORD asked Satan,  "  Where have you come from (or as it was God's normal routine to ask as a matter of authority over the evil one). "From roaming through the earth," Satan answered Him, "and walking around on it."

Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God (or fears the judgments of God in reverential awe) and turns away from evil. Even now he still retains his integrity, even though you have incited Me (or even though you have questioned his loyal integrity towards God on all occasions) against him, to destroy Job without just cause (Lit like a criminal will try to destroy his brother)."

"Skin for skin!" Satan answered the LORD. "A man will give up everything that he owns in exchange for his own life. But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face (or curse You to our face and die there)." "Very well," the LORD told Satan, "he is in your power; only spare his life."

So Satan left the LORD's presence and infected Job with incurable boils from the sole of his foot to the top of his head. Then Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes (or sat among the ashes in mourning).


The Archaic Old Testament Book of Job
Job 2: 1-8
Satan's Second Test of Job: Boils and Ashes

So Job's wife said to him, "Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die (or curse God and receive comfort in your death)!" "You speak as a foolish woman speaks," he told her. "Should we accept only good from God and not adversity (or and not adversity as all others will receive during their lives also)?" Throughout all of this Job did not sin in what he said (Lit sin with his lips against his circumstances).

The Old Testament Book of Job
Job 2: 9-10
Job's Integrity Shows Through

Now Job had three friends------Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuite, and Zophar the Naamathite------who had heard all about the adversity that had happened to Job, and each of them came from his home to visit him. They met together to go and offer sympathy, condolences, and comfort to him. When they looked from a distance, they could hardly recognize him. They wept aloud, and each man tore his robe and then threw dust in the air and on his head (or which was the custom and display of those days concerning perceiving a great injustice and with uncontrollable grief).

Then they sat on the ground with Job for seven days and nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very intense.

The Archaic Old Testament Book of Job
Job 2: 11-13
Job's Three Friends: Job Receives His Friends

After this Job began to speak and cursed the day that he was born.
He said: May the day that I was born perish, and the night when they said, "When a boy was conceived." If only that day would have turned to darkness! May God above not care about it, or light shine on it (or bless it). May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it (or as it was in the beginning of time). May an eclipse of the sun terrify it. If only darkness would have taken the night away!

May it not appear (or may it not rejoice) among the days of the year or be listed in the calendar. Yes, may the night be barren; may no joyful sound be made in it. Let those who curse certain days (or the sorcerer) cast a spell over it, those who are skilled in rousing Leviathan (or skilled necromancers and those attuned to do service in the darkness of the night).

May its morning stars grow dark. May it wait for daylight but yet not receive any; may it not see the breaking (Lit the eyelids) of the dawn. For that night did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, and hide the sorrow from my eyes.


The Old Testament Book of Job
Job 3: 1-10
Job's Opening Speech: Better Not to have Been Born

Why was I not stillborn; why didn't I die as I came from the womb? Why did the knees receive me (or the legs of my birth mother to support me), and why were there breasts for me to nurse? For then (or for then if there weren't) I would have laid down in peace; I would be asleep. Then I would be at rest with kings and counsellors of the earth (or in death as they already do), who rebuilt ruined cities (or those who were sanctioned to do great works by the will of God as only few men have ever been called to do) for themselves (or for themselves through the price of gold), or the princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.

Or why was I not hidden like a miscarried child (or like a child's spirit when it is called back to God), like infants who never see daylight. There the wicked cease to make trouble (or cease to make trouble as now their own trouble pursues them), and their weary find rest. The captives are completely at ease; they do not hear the voice of their oppressor. Both the small and great ate there, and the slave is set free from his master. Why is light given to one burdened with grief, and life to those whose existence is bitter; who wait for death, but it does not come, and search for it more than hidden treasure, who are filled with much joy and are glad when they reach the grave?

Why is life given to a man whose path is hidden, whom God has hedged in? I sigh when food is put before me (or my sighing serves as my food),  and my groans pour out like water. For the very thing that I feared has now overtaken me, and what I dreaded has now overtaken me. I cannot relax of be still; I have no rest, for trouble comes.

The Old Testament Book of Job
Job 3: 11-26
Conclusion of Opening Speech by Job: Reasoning Life in the Faces of Adversity

Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: Should anyone try to speak with you when you are exhausted? Yet who can keep from speaking? Look! You have instructed  many and have strengthened weak hands (or hands other than your own). Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling, and braced the knees that were buckling (or at times and without delay helped others who couldn't help themselves). But now that this has happened to you (or but now that this grave misfortune has come upon you), you have become exhausted (or have become wasted in your condition), it strikes you, and then you become dismayed.

Isn't your piety your confidence, and the integrity of you life (Lit ways) your hope (or your outcome of destiny)? Consider: who has perished when he is innocent? Where have the honest been destroyed? In my experience, those who plow injustice and those who sow trouble reap the same. They all perish at a single blast from God and come to an end by the breath of His nostrils. The lion may roar and the fierce lion growl, but the fangs of the young lions are broken. The strong lion dies if he catches no prey (or dies from not being able to sustain himself), and the cubs of the lioness are scattered (or scattered if she does not call out to God for her prey).

A word was brought to me in secret; my ears caught a whisper of it. Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night when deep sleep descends on men, fear and trembling came over me and made all of my bones shake. A wind (or a spirit) passes by me, and I shuddered with fear (or the hair on my body stood up). Then a figure (or a specter) stood there, but I could not recognize its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes. I heard a quiet voice: "Can a person be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?"

If God puts no trust in His servants (or if God doesn't trust because He has no equal in capability) and He charges His angels with foolishness (or if God charges His angels to accomplish only mundane things according to His power), how much more those who dwell in clay houses (or in the houses of fools), whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed like a moth! They are smashed to pieces from dawn till dusk; then they perish forever while no one notices (or no one seems to notice except God who notices all things). Are their tent cords not pulled up (or isn't their prodigy so doomed also by their very own curses against God's anointed vessels)?

They call out but they die without wisdom.


The Archaic Old Testament Book and Scroll of Job
Job 4: 1-21
First Series of Speeches: Eliphaz Speaks

Call out if you please. Will anyone answer you? Which of the holy ones will you turn to? For anger kills a fool, and jealousy slays the gullible. I have seen a fool taking root, But I immediately pronounced a curse on his home. His children are far from safety (or not very far from their father's curse). They are crushed at the city gate (or they wait in tears and travail at the place of exchange and judgment) with no one to defend them (or no one to take off his sandal in redemption before them). The hungry consume his harvest, even taking it out of the thorns (or even taking it out of his hidden places of saving).


The thirsty pant for his children's wealth (or the children's inheritance). For distress does not grow out of the soil. and trouble does not sprout from out of the ground (or out from no where). But mankind is born (or has been destined by his own existence) for trouble as surely as sparks fly upwards toward the heavens. However, if I were you, I would appeal to God and would present my case to Him. He does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number. He gives rain to the earth and sends water to the fields He sets the lowly on high, and the mourners are lifted to safety.

He frustrates the schemes of the crafty so that they achieve no success. He traps the wise in their own craftiness so that the plans of the deceptive are quickly brought to an end. They encounter darkness by day, and they grope around at noon as if it were at night. He saves the needy from their sharp words (Lit from the sword of their mouth) and from the clutches of the powerful.
So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.

See how happy the man is that God corrects; so do not reject the discipline of the Almighty.


The Old Testament and Archaic Book and Scroll of Job
Job 5: 1-17
First Series of Speeches: Eliphaz Continues to Speak God's Wisdom

For He also crushes but also binds up (or crushes one but heals another); He strikes, but His hands also heal. He rescues from six calamities (or six attacks from the evil one) no harm will touch you in seven (or in seven as God will complete His destruction against His enemies and bring lasting peace). In famine He will redeem you from death, in battle from the power of the sword. You will be safe from slander (Lit be hidden from the whip of the tongue) and not fear destruction when it comes (or when destruction is met out on your adversaries).

You will laugh at destruction and hunger and not fear the wild animals (or not fear the marauding lion or the hidden jackals) of the earth. For you will have covenant with the stones of the field (or slay the oppressor with the flat side of a rock if God wills), and the wild animals will be at peace with you (or will bolt in fear you at your coming). You will know that your tent is secure, and nothing will be missing when you inspect your homes. You will also know that your offspring will be many and your descendants like grass on the earth.

You will approach the grave in full vigor, as stack of sheaves is gathered in its season. Amen


The Old Testament Book and Archaic Scroll of Job
Job 5: 18-26
First Series of Speeches: Eliphaz Concludes

From the book of Job to modern times, and especially in the lives of the saints and in the most recent exorcisms, it is apparent from the record that evil spirits exist but also that they cannot harm us unless God allows it for a greater good than we can know. Conversely it's also true that a man who is right with God, who seeks to be God's follower, can walk into harms way and defeat both the evil spirits in God's name and by God's power...but also defeat the slaves of the devil by the same power of God.

In my life time I lived to see the USSR and communism rise like a vast tower of thunder and lightning, a titan astride the whole globe, advancing on all fronts both foreign and domestic. The 5th column within the USA was telling everyone whom they had hegemony over and most whom they lusted to control that theirs was the winning side of history, theirs the intellectual and moral high ground. That resistance was futile. That it was better to be Red than dead.

And I disbelieved them. Whether it was the Irish stubbornness or the German spirit of "lost cause" - going down swinging is honorable, I disbelieved them. Then the miracle happened. Poland stood up. A Pole was named Pope and sparked a revolution. He defeated communism in both intellectual and moral planes and lit a fire in peoples' hearts, in the youth, in the clergy, in the poor.

Then the whole carcass came crashing down. All the 'smart people' were thunderstruck and immediately began setting about to undermine the peace that might have been. The counter-attack took a while to organize but by 1994 it was beginning in Cairo, Egypt and a new evil empire was being formed to again trouble the world. A new spirit that would declare itself to be the inevitable wave of the future, against which resistance is futile, possessed of the intellectual and moral highground (which curiously avoids any debates on the merits and prefers instead to shout people down).

I've seen this movie before and I know how it ends. I'm not surrendering to this new leviathan and its minions. I'm building my own army and I intend to accept their surrender on some Battleship deck in the future. Besides, it totally whigs them out to meet folk who not only aren't cowed but talk in "historical inevitability' terms.Give em a taste of their own medicine and then step back. It's priceless

Amen brother!
Praise God!

Then Job answered: If only my grief could be weighed and my devastation be placed on a scale. For then it would outweigh the sand of the seas! That is why my words are rash. Surely the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me (Lit or are in me); because my spirit drinks their poison (or in dread). God's terror is arrayed against me. Does a wild donkey bray over fresh grass or an ox low over its fodder (or over its good fortune). Is bland food eaten without salt? Is there flavor in a egg white! I refuse to touch them; they are like contaminated food.

If only my request would be granted and God would provide what I hope for: that God would decide to crush me, to unleash His power and then cut me off! It would still bring me comfort, and I would leap for joy even in unrelenting pain that I have not denied (Lit hidden) the words of the Holy One.

The Archaic Book of Job: Old Testament of the Holy Bible
Job 6: 1-10
Job's Reply to Eliphaz: Job Prepares for Death

What strength do I have that I should continue to hope? What is my future, that I should be patient? Is my strength that of stone, or my flesh made of bronze? Since I cannot help myself, the hope for success has been banished from me.

The Old Testament Book of Job
Job 6: 11-13
Job's Reply to Eliphaz

A despairing man should receive loyalty from his friends (Lit To the despairing his friends loyalty), even if he abandons the fear of the Almighty. My brothers are as treacherous as a wadi, as seasonal streams that overflow and become darkened (or turbid) because of ice, and the snow melts into them. The wadis evaporate in warm weather; they disappear from their channels in hot weather. Caravans turn away from their routes, go up into the desert, and perish (or perish there). The Caravans of Tema look for these streams. The traveling merchants of Sheba hope for them.

They are ashamed because that they have been confident of finding water. So when they arrive there, they are frustrated. So this is what you now have become to me (Alt Hb tradition reads So you have become nothing). When you see something dreadful, you are afraid. have you ever said: Give me something or Pay a bribe for me from your wealth or Deliver me from the enemies power or Redeem me from the grasp of the ruthless?

The Archaic Old Testament Book of the Holy Bible: JOB
Job 6: 14-23
Job's reply to Eliphaz: Blessing Today; Despair Tomorrow

Teach me, and I will be silent. Help me understand what it was that I did wrong. How painful honest words can be! But what does your rebuke prove? Do you think that you can disprove my words or that a despairing man's words are mere wind (or have no validity on their own)? No doubt that you would cast lots for a fatherless child (or would not have mercy but obligation for the orphan) and negotiate a price to sell your friend. But now, please look at me; would I lie to your face? Reconsider; don't be unjust.

Reconsider; my righteousness is still the issue.
Am I lying, or can I (Lit is there injustice on my tongue, or can my palate) recognize lies?

The Old Testament and Archaic Scroll of Job
Job 6: 24-30
Job's Reply to Eliphaz: End of Chapter

Isn't mankind consigned to forced labor on the earth? Are not his days like that of a hired hand? Like a slave he longs for shade (or relief from the cares and injustices); like a hired man (or like a day-to-day laborer) he waits (or he waits for the cool of the evening) for his pay. So I have been made to inherit months of futility, and troubled nights have been assigned to me.

When I lie down I think (or surmise): When will I get up?
But the evening drags on endlessly, and I toss and turn until dawn.

The Old Testament Holy Bible and Torah Scroll accounting of the Writings of Job
(Holy Bible; Book of) Job 7: 1-4
Man Forced to do Hard Labor in the Earth: Pain Versus Relief and Reward

My flesh is clothed with maggots and is encrusted with dirt (or and dirty scabs). My skin forms scabs (Lit skin hardens) and then oozes. My days pass more swiftly than a weavers shuttle; they come to an end without hope. Remember my life is but a breath. My eye will never again see anything good. The eye of anyone who looks on me will not see me (or only see me in repose by my death and in a better state).

Your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone.

The Archaic Old Testament Book and Scroll of Job
Job 7: 5-8
Job's Reply To Eliphaz: Remembering Life With No Hope of the Future

As the cloud fades away and vanishes, the one who goes down to Sheol (or Tartarus or Hell) will never rise again. He will never return to his (or her) house (or to be reunified with the body into a glorified state through the total dismissal of the curse of Adam except for the ones who have been called by God's name for resurrection from the dead); his hometown will never remember him (or his or her body will continue to suffer decay within the earth and never be reconciled again).

The Old Testament Book and Archaic Scroll of Job
Job 7: 9-10
The Resurrection of the Eternally Living: The Curse of Adam Remains on the Dead.

Therefore I will not restrain my mouth. I will speak in anguish of spirit (or in a spirit of loathing or disdain): I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I a sea (Lit sea god; Leviathan with impenetrable iron scales) or a sea monster, that You (or God) keep me under guard? When I say: "My bed will comfort me, and my couch will ease my complaint, then You frighten me with dreams, and terrify me with visions, so that I prefer a strangling (or suffocation) death than to live life in this body.

The Old Testament Book and Scroll of the Torah of Job
Job 7: 11-16
Job Speaks Out in Desperation: No Comfort For The Afflicted

lol thats only after it fails and you are in trouble LOL

I give up! I will not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are as a breath (or are futile). What is man, that You would think so highly of him and pay so much attention to him? You inspect him every morning, and put him to the test every moment. Will You ever look away from me, or leave me alone until I swallow my own spit?

If I have sinned, what have I done to You; Oh Watcher of Mankind?

The Archaic Book and Scroll of Job
Job 7: 18-20
Job's Reply to Eliphaz: God Inspects and Tests Man at Every Moment

Why have You (or God) made me Your target, so that I have become a burden (or that I have become abhorrent as I am now) to You? Why not foegive my sin and pardon my transgression (or lawless behavior toward God)? For soon I will lie down in the grave.

You will eagerly seek me ( Job here saying to Eliphaz), but I will be gone.


An Old Testament Book of the Holy Bible
Job 7: 20-21
Job Speaks To Eliphaz (end of chapter)

I love the Book of Job

Then Bildad the Shuhite replied, "How long will you go on saying these things? Your words to me seem to be a blast of wind. Does God pervert justice (or pervert justice as men might do)?
Does the Almighty pervert (or show partiality or take bribes according to His Judgments) about what is right (or concerning the right course of action that He will take)? Since your children sinned against Him, He (or God) gave them over to their rebellion (or gave them over to be broken and crushed for their lawless acts against the LORD).

The Archaic Scroll and Old Testament Book of JOB
Job 8: 1-4
Bildad Speaks: God's Judgments are Righteous

But if You earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy, and if you are pure and upright (or carefully and diligently hold on to the law and word of God as no other), the He will move even now on your behalf and restore your home (or restore your health to its former glory) where your righteousness (or integrity toward God) dwells.

The Old Testament Book and Scroll of JOB
Job 8: 5-6
Bildad Speaks: Earnestly Seeking God's Mercy

Then, even if your beginnings were modest, your final days will be full of prosperity. For ask the previous generation, and pay attention to what their father's discovered, since we were born only yesterday (or because we are still living now showing only meager wisdom and knowledge) and know nothing. Our days on earth are but a shadow.

Will they not teach you and tell you and speak from their understanding (or from the few who teach the many).

The Old Testament Book of JOB
Job 8: 7-10
Bildad Speaks: The Way of the Wise and their Teachings

Does the papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Do reeds flourish without any water? While still uncut shoots, they would dry up quicker than any other plant. Such is the destiny (or the shedding of the petals) of all who forget God; the hope of the godless will perish (or their faith rolls up like an empty scroll).

His source of confidence is fragile (Lit cut off); what he trusts is in a spider's web.
He leans on his web, but it doesn't stand firm.
He grabs it (or grabs at it as he knows how to secure himself by it), but it doesn't hold up (or it shreds down the middle in the time of its testing).

The Book and Archaic Scroll of JOB
Holy Bible; Old Testament / Job 8: 11-15
Bildad Speaks: Reeds Blowing in the Summer Wind

He is an amply watered plant in the sunshine; his shoots spread out over his garden. His roots are intertwined around a pile of rocks. He looks for a home among the stones, If he is uprooted (Lit swallowed up) from his place, it will deny knowing him, saying, "I never saw you."
Surely this is the joy of his way of life; yet others will sprout from the dust.

The Old Testament Book and Scroll of JOB
Job 8: 16-19
Bildad Speaks: The Joys of Life Before Death

Look, God does not reject a person of integrity (or a person who earnestly strives for integrity realizing his weaknesses), and He will not support evildoers. He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with a shout of joy (or make happy those who advance themselves in honesty and through practiced integrity to make themselves honest).

Your enemies will be clothed in shame; the tent of the wicked will exist no longer (or because your tent of wickedness will exist no longer; and you will come out from them).

The Book and Archaic Scroll of JOB
Job 8: 20-22 (end of chapter)
Bildad Speaks: The Person of Marked Integrity

Then Job answered, "Yes, I know what you have said is true, but how can a person be justified (or be deeded sufficient; complete) before God? If one wanted to take Him to court, he could not answer God once in a thousand times. God is wise and all-powerful. Who has opposed Him and come out unharmed?

He moves mountains (or the rich and powerful people) without their knowledge, overturning them in His anger (or according to His wrath which has been stored up for them from the beginning).
He shakes the earth from its place so that its pillars (or shakes the worldly foundations and their pillars of injustice according to the unlawful precepts and wickedness of evil men) tremble (or tremble concerning to the severity of His judgments according to what that they have done).

The Old Testament Book of the Holy Bible of JOB
Job 9: 1-6
Job's Reply to Bildad: The Righteousness of God According to His Judgments

He commands the sun not to shine and seals off the stars. He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea (or walks on the back of the sea god; or over Leviathan He takes authority).

He makes (or drafts) the stars: the Bear (or Aldebaran), Orion, the Pleiades, and the rest of the constellations (or chambers) of the southern sky. He performs great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.

The Old Testament Book of JOB
Job 9: 7-10
Job's Reply to Bildad: The Magnificence of God's Power in the Heavens

For if He passes by me, I would not see Him; if He goes right by, I wouldn't recognize Him. If He snatches up something who can stop Him? Who can ask Him, "What are You doing?" God does not hold back His anger; Rahab's assistants cringe in fear beneath Him (or even the foreigners who have aligned themselves with God's people know and fear Yaweh)! How then can I answer Him or choose my arguments against Him?

Even if I were in the right, I could not answer.
I could only beg for mercy.

The Old Testament Book of JOB
Job 9: 11-15
Job's Reply to Bildad: The Unsearchable God

If I summoned Him and He answered me, I do not believe that He would pay attention to what I said. He batters me with a whirlwind and multiplies my wounds without cause. He doesn't let me catch my breath but soaks me with bitter experiences. If it is a matter of strength, look, He is the Mighty One!

If it is a matter of justice, who can summon Him?
Even if I were in the right (or was sure I was right merely by my own power to reason), my own mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, my mouth would declare me guilty.

The Book and Archaic Scroll of JOB
Job 9: 16-20
Job's Reply to Bildad: A Matter of Justice Aright

Though I am blameless, I no longer care about myself; I renounce my life. It is all the same. Therefore I say, "He destroys both the blameless and the wicked." When disaster brings sudden death, He mocks the despair of the innocent. The earth is handed over to the wicked; He blindfolds its judges.

If it isn't He (or if it isn't God who accomplishes all of these things), then who is it?

The Old Testament Book and Archaic Scroll of JOB
Job 9: 21-24
Job's Reply to Bildad: No Man Blameless

My days fly by faster than a sleek runner (or a royal messenger); they flee by without seeing anything good. They sweep by like boats made of papyrus (or the swiftest of sailing vessels), like an eagle (or a fishing eagle) swooping down on its prey.
If I said, "I will forget my complaint, or change my expression, and smile," I would still live in the terror according to all of my terrible pains.
I know that You will not acquit me.
Since I have been found guilty, then why should I labor (or why should I search and find a way to clemency from the Almighty God) in vain?

The Old Testament Book and Archaic Scroll of JOB
Job 9: 25-29
Job's Reply to Bildad: Job Falsely Reasons His Case Concerning God Before His Friends / Job is not Blameless or Righteous Before God; God is Justified in His Judgments and Actions Against Job

If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye, then You would dip me in a pit of mud, and my own clothes would despise me! For He is not a man like me, that I could answer Him, that we could take each other to court.

There is no one to judge between us, to lay his hand on both of us.

The Old Testament  Book and Archaic Scroll of JOB
Job 9: 30-32
Job's Reply to Bildad: Man's Clean and God's Unclean

Let Him take His rod (or rod of correction or rod of punishment) away from me so His terror will no longer frighten me. The I would speak and would not fear (or be terrorized) by Him.

But this is not the case; I am on my own.

The Book and Archaic Scroll of JOB
Job 9: 34-35 (end of chapter)
Job's Reply to Bildad: Job Afraid to State His Case for Righteousness and Acquittal

I am disgusted with my life. I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God: Do not declare me guilty! Let me know why you prosecute me. Is it good for You to oppress, to reject the work of Your hands, and favor the plans of the wicked?

Do You have eyes of flesh, or do You see as a human sees?

An Old Testament Book of the Holy Bible; JOB
Job 10: 1-4
Job's Reply to Bildad: Job Confides to Bildad About God

Are Your days like those of a human, or Your years like that of a man, that You look for my wrongdoing and search for my sin, even though You know that I am not wicked and that there is no one who can deliver from Your hand?

Your hands shaped me and formed me.
Will you now turn around and destroy me?
Please remember that You formed me like clay.

The Old Testament Book and Hebraic Scroll of JOB
Job 10: 5-9
Job's Reply to Bildad: Job Searches For His Own Likeness Unto God

Will You now return me to dust? Did You not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese (or pour me out as a drink offering unacceptable to You)? You clothed me with skin and flesh, and wove me together with bones and tendons.

You gave me life and faithful love, and Your care has guarded my life.
Yet You have concealed these thoughts in Your heart; I know that this was Your hidden plan (Lit was with You): if I sin, You would notice, and would not acquit me of my wrongdoing.

If I am wicked, woe to me (or there is an impending curse on me)!
And even if I am righteous (or have declared myself righteous), I cannot lift up my head (Lit lift up my personal countenance before God).
I am filled with shame and aware of my affliction.

The Old Testament Book and Sacred Archaic Scroll of JOB
Job 10: 9-15
Job's Reply to Bildad: God Guards The Way Of The Righteous

If I am proud, then You will hunt me like a lion and then again display Your miraculous (or Your overwhelming) power against me. You produce new witnesses (or introduce new methods of punishment for me) against me and multiply Your anger against me.

Hardships assault me, wave after wave (Lit Changes and a host are with me).

The Old Testament and Archaic Scroll of JOB
Job 10: 16-17
Job's Reply to Bildad: The Wages of Sin's Recompense

Why did You bring me out of the womb? I should died and never been seen. I wish that I had never existed but had been carried from the womb to the grave. Are my days not few? Stop it!
Leave me alone, so that I can smile a little before that I go to the land of darkness and gloom, and never to return.
It is a land of blackness like the deepest darkness, gloomy and chaotic, where even the light is like (Lit chaotic, and shines as) the darkness.

The Old Testament Book and Scroll of JOB
Job 10: 18-22 (end of chapter)
Job's Reply to Bildad: Stillborn Justice

Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:

Should this stream of words go unanswered and such a talker (Lit man of lips) be acquitted? Should your babbling put others to silence, so that you can keep on ridiculing with no one to humiliate you?
You have said, "My teaching is sound, and I am pure in Your sight."
But if only God would speak and declare His case against you, He would show you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides.

Know then, that God has chosen to overlook some of your sin.

The Old Testament Book and Archaic Scroll of JOB
JOB 11: 1-6
Zophar Speaks: Zophar Accuses Job of Sinning Against the LORD

Can you fathom the depths of God or discover the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens-----what can you do?
They are deeper than Sheol (or deeper than the Pit)-----what can you know?
Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.

The Book and Archaic Scroll of JOB
Job 11: 7-9
Zophar speaks: The Unfathomable Depths Of God

If He passes by and throws someone in prison or convenes a court, who can stop Him? Surely He knows which people are worthless. If He sees iniquity, will He not take note of it? But a stupid man will gain understanding as soon as a donkey is born a man!
As for you, if you redirect your heart and lift up your hands to Him in prayer-----if there is iniquity (or lawlessness against God's laws, statutes, and precepts) in your hand (or about your continual practice of it), remove it (or repent of it), and don't allow injustice to dwell in your tents-----then you will hold your head up high, free from fault.

The Old Testament Book and Archaic Scroll of JOB
Job: 11: 10-15
Zophar Speaks: The True and Practical Worship of God

You will be firmly established and unafraid. For you will forget your suffering, recalling it only as waters that have flowed by. Then your life will be brighter than that of noonday; its darkness will be like the morning.

You will be confident, because there will be hope.
You will look carefully about and lie down in safety.

The Old Testament Book and Archaic Scroll of JOB
JOB 11: 15-18
Zophar Speaks: Words Of Comfort and Encouragement For JOB

You will lie down without fear, and many will seek your favor. But the sight of the wicked will fail. Their way of escape will be cut off, and their only hope will be to die.

The Old Testament Holy Bible Book and Scroll of JOB
Job 11: 19-20 (end of chapter)
Zophar Speaks: The Unending Favor Of God Upon Job