Study Desk

"Job, it is not fair for you to say, ‘I am more right than God,'

"If people are being hurt, they cry out and beg for protection from those who hurt them.

"Or if evil people ask God for help, he will not answer them, because they are too proud.

So, Job, God will not listen to you when you say that you don't see him. You say you are waiting for your chance to meet with him and prove that you are innocent.

"People who don't care about God are always bitter. Even when he punishes them, they refuse to pray to him for help.

Remember to praise him for what he has done, as many others have done in song.

"Job, stop for a minute and listen. Think about the wonderful things God does.

That is why people fear and respect him. He shows no respect for those who think they are wise."

Prepare yourself for an attack! Get ready to answer the questions I will ask you.

I set the limits for the sea and put it behind locked gates.

I save them there for times of trouble, for the times of war and battle.

Who dug ditches in the sky for the heavy rain? Who made a path for the thunderstorm?

"Do you find food for the lions? Do you feed their hungry babies?

Do you know how many months they must carry their babies? Do you know when it is the right time for them to be born?

I let the wild donkey have the desert for a home. I gave the salt lands to them for a place to live.

They live in the mountains. That is their pasture. That is where they look for food to eat.

An ostrich leaves her little babies. She treats them as if they were not her own. If her babies die, she does not care that all her work was for nothing.

From there it looks far into the distance, searching for its food.

You asked, ‘Who is this ignorant person saying these foolish things?' I talked about things I did not understand. I talked about things too amazing for me to know.

So now, Eliphaz, get seven bulls and seven rams. Take them to my servant Job. Kill them and offer them as a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will answer his prayer. Then I will not give you the punishment you deserve. You should be punished, because you were very foolish. You did not say what is right about me, as my servant Job did."