Job 11

2 The man who says a great deal will have to hear a great deal back.

Or does a fluent talker think that makes him righteous?

Blessed is the short-lived one born of a woman.

3 Do not go on piling up words;

there is no one here arguing against you.

4 And do not say, “I am clean in what I do,

and blameless in front of him.”

5 But how would the Lord speak to you?

He would open his lips with you

6 and tell you the power of wisdom,

for he is twice what you are.

Then you would know that what has come to you from the Lord is what your sins deserve.

7 Will you find the track of the Lord?

Have you come to the far end of what the Almighty made?

8 Heaven is high — what will you do?

Deeper than the things in Hades — what do you know?

9 Longer than the measure of the earth, or than the width of the sea?

10 And if he overturns everything, who will say to him, “What have you done?”

11 For he knows the works of the lawless,

and when he sees what is out of place he will not let it pass.

12 But a man swims about in words and gets nowhere,

and a mortal born of a woman is like a donkey out in the desert.

13 If you have made your heart clean

and you hold your hands up to him,

14 if there is anything lawless in your hands, put it far away from you,

and do not let wrongdoing camp in your dwelling.

15 Then your face will shine like clean water;

you will strip the filth off, and you will not be afraid.

16 You will forget your trouble the way you forget a wave that has gone by,

and nothing will startle you.

17 Your prayer will be like the morning star,

and out of the noonday, life will rise for you.

18 You will be sure of yourself, because there is hope for you;

out of anxiety and care, peace will appear for you.

19 You will be left in quiet, and no one will make war on you;

many will change and come to beg from you.

20 But rescue will abandon them.

Their hope is ruin,

and the eyes of the ungodly will waste away.