1 ARST So now, Job, I ask you to listen carefully to everything that I am going to say. BSB BSB: “But now, O Job, hear my speech, and listen to all my words.
2 ARST I am ready to speak to you and tell you what I think. BSB BSB: Behold, I will open my mouth; my address is on the tip of my tongue.
3 ARST What I say will express my sincere feelings of concern for you. I will only tell you what is genuinely true. BSB BSB: My words are from an upright heart, and my lips speak sincerely what I know.
4 ARST You can trust me as someone whom God’ s Spirit created. You can trust me as someone whom Shaddai made alive. BSB BSB: The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
5 ARST { Once I have spoken,} respond to me if you can. Think carefully about how you will reply to me. BSB BSB: Refute me if you can; prepare your case and confront me.
6 ARST Now you wanted God to answer you, and I will do that for him. But I am human, just like you, BSB BSB: I am just like you before God; I was also formed from clay.
7 ARST so you do not need to be afraid of me. I will not speak to you harshly. BSB BSB: Surely no fear of me should terrify you; nor will my hand be heavy upon you.
8 ARST I listened carefully to you as you spoke, and this is what I heard you say: BSB BSB: Surely you have spoken in my hearing, and I have heard these very words:
9 ARST ‘I am righteous. I have not committed any sins. I am innocent. I have not done things that are wrong. BSB BSB: ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, with no iniquity in me.
10 ARST Nevertheless, God looks for excuses to punish me. He treats me as if I were his enemy. BSB BSB: Yet God finds occasions against me; He counts me as His enemy.
11 ARST He judges me by very strict standards. He closely observes everything that I do.’ BSB BSB: He puts my feet in the stocks; He watches over all my paths.’
12 ARST However, what you have said is incorrect. I will explain why.{ You do not realize what God is actually doing, since} it is beyond human understanding. BSB BSB: Behold, you are not right in this matter. I will answer you, for God is greater than man.
13 ARST You should not be protesting that God does not respond to what anyone says. BSB BSB: Why do you complain to Him that He answers nothing a man asks?
14 ARST God actually does speak to people in various ways. People just do not realize how he is doing that. BSB BSB: For God speaks in one way and in another, yet no one notices.
15 ARST Sometimes God speaks to people at night in dreams and visions when they are sound asleep in bed. BSB BSB: In a dream, in a vision in the night, when deep sleep falls upon men as they slumber on their beds,
16 ARST God reveals things to people at those times. He shows them that they need to change the way that they have been living. BSB BSB: He opens their ears and terrifies them with warnings
17 ARST God speaks in that way to get people to stop doing evil deeds. God wants to prevent people from sinning because they have become proud. BSB BSB: to turn a man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride,
18 ARST In this way, God prevents people from dying. Otherwise, someone might kill them violently. BSB BSB: to preserve his soul from the Pit and his life from perishing by the sword.
19 ARST God also corrects people by making them so ill that they have to lie in bed. They feel constant agony in their bodies. BSB BSB: A man is also chastened on his bed with pain and constant distress in his bones,
20 ARST They feel so sick that they do not want to eat anything, not even their favorite foods. BSB BSB: so that he detests his bread, and his soul loathes his favorite food.
21 ARST They lose so much weight that there appears to be no flesh between their skin and their bones. BSB BSB: His flesh wastes away from sight, and his hidden bones protrude.
22 ARST They become so sick that they are about to die. The angels who cause people to die start coming to get them. BSB BSB: He draws near to the Pit, and his life to the messengers of death.
23 ARST However, sometimes a special kind of angel may come to a person and tell him on behalf of God how he can change the way that he has been living so that he will not die. BSB BSB: Yet if there is a messenger on his side, one mediator in a thousand, to tell a man what is right for him,
24 ARST { If the person changes the way that he has been living,} then God will forgive him. God will tell the angels who cause people to die,‘Do not cause this person to die! I can see that I should allow him to live, because now he will do what is right.’ BSB BSB: to be gracious to him and say, ‘Spare him from going down to the Pit; I have found his ransom,’
25 ARST When that happens, the person will become healthy again and his skin will appear as fresh as the skin of a child. He will be as strong again as he was when he was young. BSB BSB: then his flesh is refreshed like a child’s; he returns to the days of his youth.
26 ARST Then God will once again treat him as a righteous person. He will pray to God, and God will answer his prayer. He will come into God’ s presence joyfully. BSB BSB: He prays to God and finds favor; he sees God’s face and shouts for joy, and God restores His righteousness to that man.
27 ARST He will sing a song of thanksgiving and tell the people who are listening,‘I sinned; yes, I did things that were not right, but God did not punish me in the way that I deserved. BSB BSB: Then he sings before men with these words: ‘I have sinned and perverted what was right; yet I did not get what I deserved.
28 ARST He has saved me from going to the place where dead people are. And so I will continue to enjoy being alive!’ BSB BSB: He redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit, and I will live to see the light.’
29 ARST Indeed, God does this for many people. BSB BSB: Behold, all these things God does to a man, two or even three times,
30 ARST He keeps them from going to the place where dead people are. That way they can continue to enjoy being alive. BSB BSB: to bring back his soul from the Pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of life.
31 ARST So Job, please listen to me. Do not say anything right now; just allow me to speak. BSB BSB: Pay attention, Job, and listen to me; be silent, and I will speak.
32 ARST { After I have spoken, then} if you have something more that you want to say to me, say it, because I would like to show that you are innocent. BSB BSB: But if you have something to say, answer me; speak up, for I would like to vindicate you.
33 ARST However, if you have nothing more that you want to say, then just listen to me. I will explain to you how you can understand your situation in a wise way.” BSB BSB: But if not, then listen to me; be quiet, and I will teach you wisdom.”
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.