Bible in Basic English
JOB 11
Job accused of iniquity
11:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite made answer and said,
2 Are all these words to go unanswered ? and is a man seen to be right because he is full of talk ?
3 Are your words of pride to make men keep quiet ? and are you to make sport, with no one to put you to shame ?
4 You may say, My way is clean, and I am free from sin in your eyes.
5 But if only God would take up the word, opening his lips in argument with you ;
6 And would make clear to you the secrets of wisdom, and the wonders of his purpose!
11:7 Are you able to take God's measure, to make discovery of the limits of the Ruler of all ?
8 They are higher than heaven ; what is there for you to do ? deeper than the underworld, and outside your knowledge ;
9 Longer in measure than the earth, and wider than the sea.
10 If he goes on his way, shutting a man up and putting him to death, who may make him go back from his purpose ?
11 For in his eyes men are as nothing ; he sees evil and takes note of it.
12 And so a hollow-minded man will get wisdom, when a young ass of the field gets teaching.
11:13 But if you put your heart right, stretching out your hands to him;
14 If you put far away the evil of your hands, and let no wrongdoing have a place in your tent;
15 Then truly your face will be lifted up, with no mark of sin, and you will be fixed in your place without fear :
16 For your sorrow will go from your memory, like waters flowing away :
17 And your life will be brighter than day ; though it is dark, it will become like the morning.
18 And you will be safe because there is hope ; after looking round, you will take your rest in quiet ;
19 Sleeping with no fear of danger ; and men will be desiring to have grace in your eyes ;
20 But the eyes of the evil-doers will be wasting away ; their way of flight is gone, and their only hope is the taking of their last breath.
JOB 12
Job affirms God's power
12:1 And Job made answer and said,
2 No doubt you have knowledge, and wisdom will come to an end with you.
3 But I have a mind as well as you ; I am equal to you: yes, who has not knowledge of such things as these ?
4 It seems that I am to be as one who is a cause of laughing to his neighbour, one who makes his prayer to God and is answered! the upright man who has done no wrong is to be made sport of !
5 In the thought of him who is in comfort there is no respect for one who is in trouble ; such is the fate of those whose feet are slipping.
6 There is wealth in the tents of those who make destruction, and those by whom God is moved to wrath are safe ; even those whose god is their strength.
7 But put now a question to the beasts, and get teaching from them ; or to the birds of the heaven, and they will make it clear to you ;
8 Or to the things which go flat on the earth, and they will give you wisdom ; and the fishes of the sea will give you news of it.
9 Who does not see by all these that the hand of the Lord has done this ?
10 In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all flesh of man.
11 Are not words tested by the ear, even as food is tasted by the mouth ?
12 Old men have wisdom, and a long life gives knowledge.
12:13 With him there is wisdom and strength ; power and knowledge are his.
14 Truly, there is no building up of what is pulled down by him ; when a man is shut up by him, no one may let him loose.
15 Truly, he keeps back the waters and they are dry ; he sends them out and the earth is overturned.
16 With him are strength and wise designs ; he who is guided into error, together with his guide, are in his hands ;
17 He takes away the wisdom of the wise guides, and makes judges foolish ;
18 He undoes the chains of kings, and puts his band on them ;
19 He makes priests prisoners, overturning those in safe positions ;
20 He makes the words of responsible persons without effect, and takes away the good sense of the old ;
21 He puts shame on chiefs, and takes away the power of the strong ;
22 Uncovering deep things out of the dark, and making the deep shade bright ;
23 Increasing nations, and sending destruction on them ; making wide the lands of peoples, and then giving them up.
24 He takes away the wisdom of the rulers of the earth, and sends them wandering in a waste where there is no way.
25 They go feeling about in the dark without light, wandering without help like those overcome with wine.
JOB, 13
Job affirms God's power
13:1 Truely, my eye has seen all this, word of it has come to my ear, and I have knowledge of it.
2 The same things are in my mind as in yours ; I am equal to you.
3 But I would have talk with the Ruler of all, and my desire is to have an argument with God.
4 But you put a false face on things; all your attempts to put things right are of no value.
5 If only you would keep quiet, it would be a sign of wisdom !
6 Give ear to the argument of my mouth, and take note of the words of my lips.
7 Will you say in God's name what is not right, and put false words into his mouth ?
8 Will you have respect for God's person in this cause, and put yourselves forward as his supporters ?
9 Will it be good for you to be searched out by him, or have you the thought that he may be guided into error like a man ?
10 He will certainly put you right, if you have respect for persons in secret.
11 Will not his glory put you in fear, so that your hearts will be overcome before him ?
12 Your wise sayings are only dust, and your strong places are only earth.
13:13 Keep quiet, and let me say what is in my mind, whatever may come to me.
14 I will take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand.
15 Truly, he will put an end to me ; I have no hope; but I will not give way in argument before him ;
16 And that will be my salvation, for an evil-doer would not come before him,
17 Give ear with care to my words, and keep what I say in your minds.
18 See now, I have put my cause in order, and I am certain that I will be seen to be right.
19 Is any one able to take up the argument against me ? If so, I would keep quiet and give up my breath.
20 Only two things do not do to me, then I will come before your face :
21 Take your hand far away from me ; and let me not be overcome by fear of you.
22 Then at the sound of your voice I will give answer ; or let me put forward my cause for you to give me an answer.
23 What is the number of my evil-doings and my sins ? give me knowledge of them.
24 Why is your face veiled from me, as if I was numbered among your haters ?
25 Will you be hard on a leaf in flight before the wind ? will you make a dry stem go more quickly on its way ?
26 For you put bitter things on record against me, and send punishment on me for the sins of my early years ;
27 And you put chains on my feet, watching all my ways, and making a limit for my steps ;
28 Though a man comes to nothing like a bit of dead wood, or like a robe which has become food for the worm.
JOB 14
Frailty of man
14:1 Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
2 He comes out like a flower, and is cut down: he goes in flight like a shade, and is never seen again.
3 Is it on such a one as this that your eyes are fixed, with the purpose of judging him ?
4 If only a clean thing might come out of an unclean ! But it is not possible.
5 If his days are ordered, and you have knowledge of the number of his months, having given him a fixed limit past which he may not go ;
6 Let your eyes be turned away from him, and take your hand from him, so that he may have pleasure at the end of his day, like a servant working for payment.
14:7 For there is hope of a tree; if it is cut down, it will come to life again, and its branches will not come to an end.
8 Though its root may be old in the earth, and its cut-off end may be dead in the dust ;
9 Still, at the smell of water, it will make buds, and put out branches like a young plant.
10 But man comes to his death and is gone : he gives up his spirit, and where is he ?
11 The waters go from a pool, and a river becomes waste and dry ;
12 So man goes down to his last resting-place and comes not again : till the heavens come to an end, they will not be awake or come out of their sleep.
13 If only you would keep me safe in the underworld, putting me in a secret place till your wrath is past, giving me a fixed time when I might come to your memory again !
14 If death takes a man, will he come to life again ? All the days of my trouble I would be waiting, till the time came for me to be free.
15 At the sound of your voice I would give an answer, and you would have a desire for the work of your hands.
16 For now my steps are numbered by you, and my sin is not overlooked.
17 My wrongdoing is corded up in a bag, and my sin is shut up safe.
14:18 But truly a mountain falling comes to dust, and a rock is moved from its place ;
19 The stones are crushed small by the force of the waters ; the dust of the earth is washed away by their overflowing : and so you put an end to the hope of man.
20 You overcome him for ever, and he is gone ; his face is changed in death, and you send him away.
21 His sons come to honour, and he has no knowledge of it ; they are made low, but he is not conscious of it.
22 Only his flesh still has pain, and his soul is sad.
JOB 15
Job rebuked by Eliphaz
15:1 And
Eliphaz the Temanite made answer and said,
2 Will a wise man make answer with knowledge of no value, or will he give birth to the east wind ?
3 Will he make arguments with words in which is no profit, and with sayings which have no value ?
4 Truly, you make the fear of God without effect, so that the time of quiet worship before God is made less by your outcry.
5 For your mouth is guided by your sin, and you have taken the tongue of the false for yourself.
6 It is by your mouth, even yours, that you are judged to be in the wrong, and not by me ; and your lips give witness against you.
15:7 Were you the first man to come into the world ? or did you come into being before the hills ?
8 Were you present at the secret meeting of God ? and have you taken all wisdom for yourself ?
9 What knowledge have you which we have not ? is there anything in your mind which is not in ours ?
10 With us are men who are grey-haired and full of years, much older than your father.
11 Are the comforts of God not enough for you, and the gentle word which was said to you ?
15:12 Why is your heart uncontrolled, and why are your eyes lifted up ;
13 So that you are turning your spirit against God, and letting such words go out of your mouth ?
14 What is man, that he may be clean ? and how may the son of woman be upright ?
15 Truly, he puts no faith in his holy ones, and the heavens are not clean in his eyes ;
16 How much less one who is disgusting and unclean, a man who takes in evil like water !
15:17 Take note and give ear to my words; and I will say what I have seen :
18 (The things which wise men have got from their fathers, and have not kept secret from us ;
19 For only to them was the land given, and no strange people were among them :)
20 The evil man is in pain all his days, and the number of the years stored up for the cruel is small.
21 A sound of fear is in his ears ; in time of peace destruction will come on him :
22 He has no hope of coming safe out of the dark, and his fate will be the sword;
23 He is wandering about in search of bread, saying, Where is it ? and he is certain that the day of trouble is ready for him :
24 He is greatly in fear of the dark day, trouble and pain overcome him :
25 Because his hand is stretched out against God, and his heart is lifted up against the Ruler of all,
26 Running against him like a man of war, covered by his thick breastplate; even like a king ready for the fight,
27 Because his face is covered with fat, and his body has become thick ;
28 And he has made his resting-place in the towns which have been pulled down, in houses where no man had a right to be, whose fate was to become masses of broken walls.
29 He does not get wealth for himself, and is unable to keep what he has got ; the heads of his grain are not bent down to the earth.
30 He does not come out of the dark; his branches are burned by the flame, and the wind takes away his bud.
31 Let him not put his hope in what is false, falling into error: for he will get deceit as his reward.
32 His branch is cut off before its time, and his leaf is no longer green.
33 He is like a vine whose grapes do not come to full growth, or an olive-tree dropping its flowers.
34 For the band of the evil-doers gives no fruit, and the tents of those who give wrong decisions for reward are burned with fire.
35 Evil has made them with child, and they give birth to trouble; and the fruit of their body is shame for themselves.
JOB 16
16:1 And Job made answer and said,
2 Such things have frequently come to my ears : you are comforters who only give trouble.
3 May words which are like the wind be stopped ? or what is troubling you to make answer to them ?
4 It would not be hard for me to say such things if your souls were in my soul's place; joining words together against you, and shaking my head at you :
5 I might give you strength with my mouth, and not keep back the comfort of my lips.
16:6 If I say what is in my mind, my pain becomes no less : and if I keep quiet, how much of it goes from me ?
7 But now he has overcome me with weariness and fear, and I am in the grip of all my trouble.
8 It has come up as a witness against me, and the wasting of my flesh makes answer to my face.
9 I am broken by his wrath, and his hate has gone after me ; he has made his teeth sharp against me : my haters are looking on me with cruel eyes ;
10 Their mouths are open wide against me; the blows of his bitter words are falling on my face ; all of them come together in a mass against me.
11 God gives me over to the power of sinners, sending me violently into the hands of evil-doers.
12 I was in comfort, but I have been broken up by his hands; he has taken me by the neck, shaking me to bits ; he has put me up as a mark for his arrows.
13 His bowmen come round about me ; their arrows go through my body without mercy ; my life is drained out on the earth.
14 I am broken with wound after wound ; he comes rushing on me like a man of war.
15 I have made haircloth the clothing of my skin, and my horn is rolled in the dust.
16 My face is red with weeping, and my eyes are becoming dark ;
17 Though my hands have done no violent acts, and my prayer is clean.
16:18 O earth, let not my blood be covered, and let my cry have no resting-place !
19 Even now my witness is in heaven, and the supporter of my cause is on high.
20 My friends make sport of me ; to God my eyes are weeping,
21 So that he may give decision for a man in his cause with God, and between a son of man and his neighbour.
22 For in a short time I will take the journey from which I will not come back.
JOB 17
17:1 My spirit is broken, my days are ended, the last resting-place is ready for me.
2 Truly, those who make sport of me are round about me, and my eyes become dark because of their bitter laughing.
17:3 Be pleased, now, to be responsible for me to yourself ; for there is no other who will put his hand in mine.
4 You have kept their hearts from wisdom: for this cause you will not give them honour.
5 As for him who is false to his friend for a reward, light will be cut off from the eyes of his children.
6 He has made me a word of shame to the peoples ; I have become a mark for their sport.
7 My eyes have become dark because of my pain, and all my body is wasted to a shade.
8 The upright are surprised at this, and he who has done no wrong is troubled because of the evil-doers.
9 Still the upright keeps on his way, and he who has clean hands gets new strength.
10 But come back, now, all of you, come; and I will not see a wise man among you.
11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the desires of my heart.
12 They are changing night into day; they say, The light is near the dark.
13 If I am waiting for the underworld as my house, if I have made my bed in the dark ;
14 If I say to the earth, You are my father ; and to the worm, My mother and my sister ;
15 Where then is my hope ? and who will see my desire ?
16 Will they go down with me into the underworld ? Will we go down together into the dust ?
JOB 18
18:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite made answer and said,
2 How long will it be before you have done talking ? Get wisdom, and then we will say what is in our minds.
3 Why do we seem as beasts in your eyes, and as completely without knowledge ?
4 But come back, now, come: you who are wounding yourself in your passion, will the earth be given up because of you, or a rock be moved out of its place ?
18:5 For the light of the sinner is put out, and the flame of his fire is not shining.
6 The light is dark in his tent, and the light shining over him is put out.
7 The steps of his strength become short, and by his design destruction overtakes him.
8 His feet take him into the net, and he goes walking into the cords.
9 His foot is taken in the net; he comes into its grip.
10 The twisted cord is put secretly in the earth to take him, and the cord is placed in his way.
11 He is overcome by fears on every side, they go after him at every step.
12 His strength is made feeble for need of food, and destruction is waiting for his falling footstep.
13 His skin is wasted by disease, and his body is food for the worst of diseases.
14 He is pulled out of his tent where he was safe, and he is taken away to the king of fears.
15 In his tent will be seen that which is not his, burning stone is dropped on his house.
16 Under the earth his roots are dry, and over it his branch is cut off.
17 His memory is gone from the earth, and in the open country there is no knowledge of his name.
18 He is sent away from the light into the dark ; he is forced out of the world.
19 He has no offspring or family among his people, and in his living-place there is no one of his name.
20 At his fate those of the west are shocked, and those of the east are overcome with fear.
21 Truly, these are the houses of the sinner, and this is the place of him who has no knowledge of God.
JOB 19
1 And Job made answer and said,
2 How long will you make my life bitter, crushing me with words ?
3 Ten times now you have made sport of me ; it gives you no sense of shame to do me wrong.
4 And, truly, if I have been in error, the effect of my error is only on myself.
5 If you make yourselves great against me, using my punishment as an argument against me,
6 Be certain that it is God who has done me wrong, and has taken me in his net.
7 Truly, I make an outcry against the violent man, but there is no answer : I give a cry for help, but no one takes up my cause.
8 My way is walled up by him so that I may not go by: he has made my roads dark.
9 He has put off my glory from me, and taken the crown from my head.
10 I am broken down by him on every side, and I am gone ; my hope is uprooted like a tree.
11 His wrath is burning against me, and I am to him as one of his haters.
12 His armies come on together, they make their road high against me, and put up their tents round mine.
19:13 He has taken my brothers far away from me; they have seen my fate and have become strange to me.
14 My relations and my near friends have given me up, and those living in my house have put me out of their minds.
15 I am strange to my women-servants, and seem to them as one from another country.
16 At my cry my servant gives me no answer, and I have to make a prayer to him.
17 My breath is strange to my wife, and I am disgusting to the offspring of my mother's body.
18 Even young children have no respect for me; when I get up their backs are turned on me.
19 All the men of my circle keep away from me; and those dear to me are turned against me.
20 My bones are joined to my skin, and I have got away with my flesh in my teeth.
21 Have pity on me, have pity on me, O my friends ! for the hand of God is on me.
22 Why are you cruel to me, like God, for ever saying evil against me ?
19:23 If only my words might be recorded! if they might be put in writing in a book !
24 And with an iron pen and lead be cut into the rock for ever !
25 But I am certain that he who will take up my cause is living, and that in time to come he will take his place on the dust ;
26 And . . . without my flesh I will see God ;
27 Whom I will see on my side, and not as one strange to me. My heart is broken with desire.
28 If you say, How cruel we will be to him! because the root of sin is clearly in him :
29 Be in fear of the sword, for the sword is the punishment for such things, so that you may be certain that there is a judge.
JOB 20
20:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite made answer and said,
2 For this cause my thoughts are troubling me and driving me on.
3 I have to give ear to arguments which put me to shame, and your answers to me are wind without wisdom.
4 Have you knowledge of this from early times, when man was placed on the earth,
5 That the pride of the sinner is short, and the joy of the evil-doer but for a minute ?
6 Though he is lifted up to the heavens, and his head goes up to the clouds;
7 Like the waste from his body he comes to an end for ever : those who have seen him say, Where is he ?
8 He is gone like a dream, and is not seen again ; he goes in flight like a vision of the night.
9 The eye which saw him sees him no longer ; and his place has no more knowledge of him.
10 His children are hoping that the poor will be kind to them, and his hands give back his wealth.
11 His bones are full of young strength, but it will go down with him into the dust.
20:12 Though evil-doing is sweet in his mouth, and he keeps it secretly under his tongue ;
13 Though he takes care of it, and does not let it go, but keeps it still in his mouth ;
14 His food becomes bitter in his stomach ; the poison of snakes is inside him.
15 He takes down wealth as food, and sends it up again; it is forced out of his stomach by God.
16 He takes the poison of snakes into his mouth, the tongue of the snake is the cause of his death.
17 Let him not see the rivers of oil, the streams of honey and milk.
18 He is forced to give back the fruit of his work, and may not take it for food; he has no joy in the profit of his trading.
19 Because he has been cruel to the poor, turning away from them in their trouble ; because he has taken a house by force which he did not put up;
20:20 There is no peace for him in his wealth, and no salvation for him in those things in which he took delight.
20:21 He had never enough for his desire; for this cause his well-being will quickly come to an end.
20:22 Even when his wealth is great, he is full of care, for the hand of everyone who is in trouble is turned against him.
20:23 God gives him his desire, and sends the heat of his wrath on him, making it come down on him like rain.
20:24 He may go in flight from the iron spear, but the arrow from the bow of brass will go through him ;
20:25 He is pulling it out, and it comes out of his back ; and its shining point comes out of his side; he is overcome by fears.
20:26 All his wealth is stored up for the dark: a fire not made by man sends destruction on him, and on everything in his tent.
20:27 The heavens make clear his sin, and the earth gives witness against him.
20:28 The produce of his house is taken away into another country, like things given into the hands of others in the day of wrath.
20:29 This is the reward of the evil man, and the heritage given to him by God.
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