Job 11

Zophar

¹Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:

²“Are all these words to go unanswered?

Is this talker to be vindicated?

³Will your idle talk reduce others to silence?

Will no one rebuke you when you mock?

⁴You say to God, ‘My beliefs are flawless

and I am pure in your sight.’

⁵Oh, how I wish that God would speak,

that he would open his lips against you

⁶and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom,

for true wisdom has two sides.

Know this: God has even forgotten some of your sin.

⁷“Can you fathom the mysteries of God?

Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?

⁸They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do?

They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know?

⁹Their measure is longer than the earth

and wider than the sea.

¹⁰“If he comes along and confines you in prison

and convenes a court, who can oppose him?

¹¹Surely he recognizes deceivers;

and when he sees evil, does he not take note?

¹²But the witless can no more become wise

than a wild donkey’s colt can be born human.

¹³“Yet if you devote your heart to him

and stretch out your hands to him,

¹⁴if you put away the sin that is in your hand

and allow no evil to dwell in your tent,

¹⁵then, free of fault, you will lift up your face;

you will stand firm and without fear.

¹⁶You will surely forget your trouble,

recalling it only as waters gone by.

¹⁷Life will be brighter than noonday,

and darkness will become like morning.

¹⁸You will be secure, because there is hope;

you will look about you and take your rest in safety.

¹⁹You will lie down, with no one to make you afraid,

and many will court your favor.

²⁰But the eyes of the wicked will fail,

and escape will elude them;

their hope will become a dying gasp.”