Job Prepares for Death 1 UST My time to live is almost over. I have no strength left. I am just about to die. BSB BSB: “My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; the grave awaits me.
2 UST The people who are around me are continually making fun of me. I have to watch them taunt me. BSB BSB: Surely mockers surround me, and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.
3 UST God, even though you would be trying my case, please also guarantee to yourself that I will appear in court and behave as a defendant should. There is certainly no one else who will do that for me. BSB BSB: Give me, I pray, the pledge You demand. Who else will be my guarantor?
4 UST My friends will not vouch for me, because you have prevented them from understanding that I am innocent. Nevertheless, you will not prove them right by declaring me guilty. BSB BSB: You have closed their minds to understanding; therefore You will not exalt them.
5 UST { I know that you will treat me justly because you make sure that people act justly. For example,} you punish people who give false testimony against their neighbors in exchange for a bribe. You make their whole families suffer if they do that. BSB BSB: If a man denounces his friends for a price, the eyes of his children will fail.
6 UST But because God is punishing me, people use my name to mean someone who was formerly prosperous but who experienced disaster because he was wicked. People even spit in my face{ to insult me}. BSB BSB: He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit.
7 UST Because I am very sad, it has become hard for me to see. My whole body has become so thin that it is as if I am not even here. BSB BSB: My eyes have grown dim with grief, and my whole body is but a shadow.
8 UST When people who are truly righteous see what has happened to me, it shocks them. It makes them want to punish people who really disobey God. BSB BSB: The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent are stirred against the godless.
9 UST Those who are truly righteous will continue to do what is right, and those who are innocent will continue to become stronger. BSB BSB: Yet a righteous one holds to his way, and the one with clean hands grows stronger.
10 UST But as for you friends of mine, we could continue talking, but I do not think that I will conclude that even one of you is wise. BSB BSB: But come back and try again, all of you. For I will not find a wise man among you.
11 UST My time to live has almost ended. I have not been able to do the things that I planned to do. I can no longer hope that the things I most desired will happen. BSB BSB: My days have passed; my plans are broken off—even the desires of my heart.
12 UST My friends say that the troubles I am experiencing are actually a good thing{ because God is using the troubles to correct me}. My friends say that because my troubles have become so bad, that means they must nearly be over. BSB BSB: They have turned night into day, making light seem near in the face of darkness.
13 UST Suppose the only home I could hope to have was the place where dead people go. Suppose I were going to stay in that dark place. BSB BSB: If I look for Sheol as my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness,
14 UST Suppose I considered the grave to be my family home, and suppose I considered the worms that live in graves to be my family. BSB BSB: and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
15 UST Then that would show that I truly do not have good things to hope for. Everyone would recognize that I was not really hoping for anything. BSB BSB: where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me?
16 UST It would be as if everything I hoped for were going to the place where dead people go. Yes, it would be as if people were burying the things I have hoped for with me in a grave.” BSB BSB: Will it go down to the gates of Sheol? Will we go down together into the dust?”
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.