Along The Way (March 13 - 19, 2026)
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Job 17 & 18
Job Prays for Relief
“My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;
the grave is ready for me.
Surely there are mockers around me,
and my eye dwells on their provocation.
“Lay down a pledge for me with yourself;
who is there who will give surety for me?
Since you have closed their minds to understanding,
therefore you will not let them triumph.
Those who denounce friends for reward —
the eyes of their children will fail.
“He has made me a byword of the peoples,
and I am one before whom people spit.
My eye has grown dim from grief,
and all my members are like a shadow.
The upright are appalled at this,
and the innocent stir themselves up against the godless.
Yet the righteous hold to their way,
and they who have clean hands grow stronger and stronger.
But you, come back now, all of you,
and I shall not find a sensible person among you.
My days are past; my plans are broken off,
the desires of my heart.
They make night into day;
‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’
If I look for Sheol as my house,
if I spread my couch in darkness,
if I say to the Pit, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’
where then is my hope?
Who will see my hope?
Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
Shall we descend together into the dust?”
Bildad Speaks: God Punishes the Wicked
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
“How long will you hunt for words?
Consider, and then we shall speak.
Why are we counted as cattle?
Why are we stupid in your sight?
You who tear yourself in your anger —
shall the earth be forsaken because of you
or the rock be removed out of its place?
“Surely the light of the wicked is put out,
and the flame of their fire does not shine.
The light is dark in their tent,
and the lamp above them is put out.
Their strong steps are shortened,
and their own schemes throw them down.
For they are thrust into a net by their own feet,
and they walk into a pitfall.
A trap seizes them by the heel;
a snare lays hold of them.
A rope is hid for them in the ground,
a trap for them in the path.
Terrors frighten them on every side
and chase them at their heels.
Their strength is consumed by hunger,
and calamity is ready for their stumbling.
By disease their skin is consumed;
the firstborn of Death consumes their limbs.
They are torn from the tent in which they trusted
and are brought to the king of terrors.
In their tents nothing remains;
sulfur is scattered upon their habitations.
Their roots dry up beneath,
and their branches wither above.
Their memory perishes from the earth,
and they have no name in the street.
They are thrust from light into darkness
and driven out of the world.
They have no offspring or descendant among their people
and no survivor where they used to live.
They of the west are appalled at their fate,
and horror seizes those of the east.
Surely such are the dwellings of the ungodly;
such is the place of those who do not know God.”
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Job 19
Job Replies: I Know That My Vindicator Lives
Then Job answered:
“How long will you torment me
and break me in pieces with words?
These ten times you have cast reproach upon me;
are you not ashamed to wrong me?
And even if it is true that I have erred,
my error remains with me.
If indeed you magnify yourselves against me
and make my humiliation an argument against me,
know then that God has put me in the wrong
and closed his net around me.
Even when I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I am not answered;
I call aloud, but there is no justice.
He has walled up my way so that I cannot pass,
and he has set darkness upon my paths.
He has stripped my glory from me
and taken the crown from my head.
He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone;
he has uprooted my hope like a tree.
He has kindled his wrath against me
and counts me as his adversary.
His troops come on together;
they have thrown up siegeworks against me
and encamp around my tent.
“He has put my family far from me,
and my acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
My relatives and my close friends have failed me;
the guests in my house have forgotten me;
my female servants count me as a stranger;
I have become an alien in their eyes.
I call to my servant, but he gives me no answer;
I must myself plead with him.
My breath is repulsive to my wife;
I am loathsome to my own family.
Even young children despise me;
when I rise, they talk against me.
All my intimate friends abhor me,
and those whom I love have turned against me.
My bones cling to my skin and to my flesh,
and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me!
Why do you, like God, pursue me,
never satisfied with my flesh?
“O that my words were written down!
O that they were inscribed in a book!
O that with an iron pen and with lead
they were engraved on a rock forever!
For I know that my vindicator lives
and that in the end he will stand upon the earth;
and after my skin has been destroyed,
then in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see on my side,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!
If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’
and, ‘The root of the matter is found in him,’
be afraid of the sword,
for wrath brings the punishment of the sword,
so that you may know there is a judgment.”
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Job 20
Zophar Speaks: Wickedness Receives Just Retribution
Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:
“Listen! My thoughts urge me to answer
because of the agitation within me.
I hear censure that insults me,
and a spirit beyond my understanding answers me.
Do you not know this from of old,
ever since mortals were placed on earth,
that the exulting of the wicked is short
and the joy of the godless is but for a moment?
Even though they mount up high as the heavens
and their head reaches to the clouds,
they will perish forever like their own dung;
those who have seen them will say, ‘Where are they?’
They will fly away like a dream and not be found;
they will be chased away like a vision of the night.
The eye that saw them will see them no more,
nor will their place behold them any longer.
Their children will seek the favor of the poor,
and their hands will give back their wealth.
Their bodies, once full of youth,
will lie down in the dust with them.
"Though wickedness is sweet in their mouth,
though they hide it under their tongues,
though they are loath to let it go
and hold it in their mouths,
yet their food is turned in their stomachs;
it is the venom of asps within them.
They swallow down riches and vomit them up again;
God casts them out of their bellies.
They will suck the poison of asps;
the tongue of a viper will kill them.
They will not look on the rivers,
the streams flowing with honey and curds.
They will give back the fruit of their toil
and will not swallow it down;
from the profit of their trading
they will get no enjoyment.
For they have crushed and abandoned the poor;
they have seized a house that they did not build.
“For they knew no quiet in their bellies;
in their greed they let nothing escape.
There was nothing left after they had eaten;
therefore their prosperity will not endure.
In full sufficiency they will be in distress;
all the force of misery will come upon them.
To fill their belly to the full,
God will send his fierce anger into them
and rain it upon them as their food.
They will flee from an iron weapon;
a bronze arrow will strike them through.
It is drawn forth and comes out of their body,
and the glittering point comes out of their gall;
terrors come upon them.
Utter darkness is laid up for their treasures;
a fire fanned by no one will devour them;
what is left in their tent will be consumed.
The heavens will reveal their iniquity,
and the earth will rise up against them.
The possessions of their house will be carried away,
dragged off in the day of God’s wrath.
This is the portion of the wicked from God,
the heritage decreed for them by God.”
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Job 21 & 22
Job Replies: The Wicked Often Go Unpunished
Then Job answered:
“Listen carefully to my words,
and let this be your consolation.
Bear with me, and I will speak;
then after I have spoken, mock on.
As for me, is my complaint addressed to mortals?
Why should I not be impatient?
Look at me and be appalled,
and lay your hand upon your mouth.
When I think of it I am dismayed,
and shuddering seizes my flesh.
Why do the wicked live on,
reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
Their children are established in their presence
and their offspring before their eyes.
Their houses are safe from fear,
and no rod of God is upon them.
Their bull breeds without fail;
their cow calves and never miscarries.
They send out their little ones like a flock,
and their children dance around.
They sing to the tambourine and the lyre
and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
They spend their days in prosperity,
and in peace they go down to Sheol.
They say to God, ‘Leave us alone!
We do not desire to know your ways.
What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’
Is not their prosperity indeed their own achievement?
The plans of the wicked are repugnant to me.
“How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
How often does calamity come upon them?
How often does God distribute pains in his anger?
How often are they like straw before the wind
and like chaff that the storm carries away?
You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’
Let it be paid back to them, so that they may know it.
Let their own eyes see their destruction,
and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
For what do they care for their household after them,
when the number of their months is cut off?
Will any teach God knowledge,
seeing that he judges those who are on high?
One dies in full prosperity,
being wholly at ease and secure,
his loins full of milk
and the marrow of his bones moist.
Another dies in bitterness of soul,
never having tasted of good.
They lie down alike in the dust,
and the worms cover them.
“Oh, I know your thoughts
and your schemes to wrong me.
For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?
Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
Have you not asked those who travel the roads,
and do you not accept their testimony,
that the wicked are spared in the day of calamity
and are rescued in the day of wrath?
Who declares their way to their face,
and who repays them for what they have done?
When they are carried to the grave,
a watch is kept over their tomb.
The clods of the valley are sweet to them;
everyone will follow after,
and those who went before are innumerable.
How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?
There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”
Eliphaz Speaks: Job’s Wickedness Is Great
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
“Can a mortal be of use to God?
Can even the wisest be of service to him?
Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous,
or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?
Is it for your piety that he reproves you
and enters into judgment with you?
Is not your wickedness great?
There is no end to your iniquities.
For you have exacted pledges from your family for no reason
and stripped the naked of their clothing.
You have given no water to the weary to drink,
and you have withheld bread from the hungry.
The powerful possess the land,
and the favored live in it.
You have sent widows away empty-handed,
and the arms of the orphans you have crushed.
Therefore snares are around you,
and sudden terror overwhelms you,
or darkness so that you cannot see;
a flood of water covers you.
“Is not God high in the heavens?
See the highest stars, how lofty they are!
Therefore you say, ‘What does God know?
Can he judge through the deep darkness?
Thick clouds enwrap him, so that he does not see,
and he walks on the dome of heaven.’
Will you keep to the old way
that the wicked have trod?
They were snatched away before their time;
their foundation was washed away by a flood.
They said to God, ‘Leave us alone,’
and ‘What can the Almighty do to us?’
Yet he filled their houses with good things —
but the plans of the wicked are repugnant to me.
The righteous see it and are glad;
the innocent laugh them to scorn,
saying, ‘Surely our adversaries are cut off,
and what they left, the fire has consumed.’
“Agree with God, and be at peace;
in this way good will come to you.
Receive instruction from his mouth,
and lay up his words in your heart.
If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored,
if you remove unrighteousness from your tents,
if you treat gold like dust
and gold of Ophir like the stones of the torrent bed,
and if the Almighty is your gold
and your precious silver,
then you will delight yourself in the Almighty
and lift up your face to God.
You will pray to him, and he will hear you,
and you will pay your vows.
You will decide on a matter, and it will be established for you,
and light will shine on your ways.
When others are humiliated, you say it is pride,
for he saves the humble.
He will deliver even those who are guilty;
they will escape because of the cleanness of your hands.”
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Job 23
Job Replies: My Complaint Is Bitter
Then Job answered:
“Today also my complaint is bitter;
his hand is heavy despite my groaning.
Oh, that I knew where I might find him,
that I might come even to his dwelling!
I would lay my case before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.
I would learn what he would answer me
and understand what he would say to me.
Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?
No, but he would give heed to me.
There the upright could reason with him,
and I should be acquitted forever by my judge.
“If I go forward, he is not there;
or backward, I cannot perceive him;
on the left he hides, and I cannot behold him;
I turn to the right, but I cannot see him.
But he knows the way that I take;
when he has tested me, I shall come out like gold.
My foot has held fast to his steps;
I have kept his way and have not turned aside.
I have not departed from the commandment of his lips;
I have treasured his words in my bosom.
But he stands alone, and who can dissuade him?
What he desires, that he does.
For he will complete what he appoints for me,
and many such things are in his mind.
Therefore I am terrified at his presence;
when I consider, I am in dread of him.
God has made my heart faint;
the Almighty has terrified me.
If only I could vanish in darkness,
and thick darkness would cover my face!
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Job 24, 25 & 26
Job Complains of Violence on the Earth
“Why are times not kept by the Almighty,
and why do those who know him never see his days?
The wicked remove landmarks;
they seize flocks and pasture them.
They drive away the donkey of the orphan;
they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
They thrust the needy off the road;
the poor of the earth all hide themselves.
Like wild asses in the desert
they go out to their toil,
scavenging in the wasteland
food for their young.
They reap in a field not their own,
and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.
They lie all night naked, without clothing,
and have no covering in the cold.
They are wet with the rain of the mountains
and cling to the rock for want of shelter.
“There are those who snatch the orphan child from the breast
and take as a pledge the infant of the poor.
They go about naked, without clothing;
though hungry, they carry the sheaves;
between their terraces they press out oil;
they tread the winepresses but suffer thirst.
From the city the dying groan,
and the throat of the wounded cries for help;
yet God pays no attention to their prayer.
“There are those who rebel against the light,
who are not acquainted with its ways
and do not stay in its paths.
The murderer rises at dusk
to kill the poor and needy
and in the night is like a thief.
The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight,
saying, ‘No eye will see me,’
and he disguises his face.
In the dark they dig through houses;
by day they shut themselves up;
they do not know the light.
For deep darkness is morning to all of them;
for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.
“Swift are they on the face of the waters;
their portion in the land is cursed;
no treader turns toward their vineyards.
Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters;
so does Sheol those who have sinned.
The womb forgets them;
the worm finds them sweet;
they are no longer remembered,
so wickedness is broken like a tree.
“They harm the childless woman
and do no good to the widow.
Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power;
they rise up when they despair of life.
He gives them security, and they are supported;
his eyes are upon their ways.
They are exalted a little while and then are gone;
they wither and fade like the mallow;
they are cut off like the heads of grain.
If it is not so, who will prove me a liar
and show that there is nothing in what I say?”
Bildad Speaks: How Can a Mortal Be Righteous before God?
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
“Dominion and fear are with God;
he makes peace in his high heaven.
Is there any number to his armies?
Upon whom does his light not arise?
How then can a mortal be righteous before God?
How can one born of woman be pure?
If even the moon is not bright
and the stars are not pure in his sight,
how much less a mortal, who is a maggot,
and a human being, who is a worm!”
Job Replies: God’s Majesty Is Unsearchable
Then Job answered:
“How you have helped one who has no power!
How you have assisted the arm that has no strength!
How you have counseled one who has no wisdom
and given much good advice!
With whose help have you uttered words,
and whose spirit has come forth from you?
The shades below tremble,
the waters and their inhabitants.
Sheol is naked before God,
and Abaddon has no covering.
He stretches out Zaphon over the void
and hangs the earth upon nothing.
He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,
and the cloud is not torn open by them.
He covers the face of the full moon
and spreads over it his cloud.
He has described a circle on the face of the waters,
at the boundary between light and darkness.
The pillars of heaven tremble
and are astounded at his rebuke.
By his power he stilled the Sea;
by his understanding he struck down Rahab.
By his wind the heavens were made fair;
his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
These are indeed but the outskirts of his ways,
and how small a whisper do we hear of him!
But the thunder of his power who can understand?”
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Job 27 & 28
Job Maintains His Integrity
Job again took up his discourse and said:
“As God lives, who has taken away my right,
and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,
as long as my breath is in me
and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,
my lips will not speak falsehood,
and my tongue will not utter deceit.
Far be it from me to say that you are right;
until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go;
my heart will not reproach me as long as I live.
“May my enemy be like the wicked,
and may my opponent be like the unrighteous.
For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts them off,
when God takes away their lives?
Will God hear their cry
when trouble comes upon them?
Will they take delight in the Almighty?
Will they call upon God at all times?
I will teach you concerning the hand of God;
that which is with the Almighty I will not conceal.
All of you have seen it yourselves;
why then have you become altogether vain.
“This is the portion of the wicked with God
and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty:
If their children are multiplied, it is for the sword,
and their offspring have not enough to eat.
Those who survive them the pestilence buries,
and their widows make no lamentation.
Though they heap up silver like dust
and pile up clothing like clay,
they may pile it up, but the just will wear it,
and the innocent will divide the silver.
They build their houses like nests,
like booths made by sentinels of the vineyard.
They go to bed with wealth but will do so no more;
they open their eyes, and it is gone.
Terrors overtake them like a flood;
in the night a whirlwind carries them off.
The east wind lifts them up, and they are gone;
it sweeps them out of their place.
It hurls at them without pity;
they flee from its power in headlong flight.
It claps its hands at them
and hisses at them from its place.
Interlude: Where Wisdom Is Found
“Surely there is a mine for silver
and a place for gold to be refined.
Iron is taken out of the earth,
and copper is smelted from ore.
Miners put an end to darkness
and search out to the farthest bound
the ore in gloom and deep darkness.
They open shafts in a valley away from human habitation;
they are forgotten by travelers;
they sway suspended, remote from people.
As for the earth, out of it comes bread,
but underneath it is turned up as by fire.
Its stones are the place of sapphires,
and its dust contains gold.
“That path no bird of prey knows,
and the falcon’s eye has not seen it.
The proud wild animals have not trodden it;
the lion has not passed over it.
“They put their hand to the flinty rock
and overturn mountains by the roots.
They cut out channels in the rocks,
and their eyes see every precious thing.
The sources of the rivers they probe;
hidden things they bring to light.
“But where shall wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
Mortals do not know the way to it,
and it is not found in the land of the living.
The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’
and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’
It cannot be gotten for gold,
and silver cannot be weighed out as its price.
It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,
in precious onyx or sapphire.
Gold and glass cannot equal it,
nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.
No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal;
the price of wisdom is above pearls.
The chrysolite of Cush cannot compare with it,
nor can it be valued in pure gold.
“Where then does wisdom come from?
And where is the place of understanding?
It is hidden from the eyes of all living
and concealed from the birds of the air.
Abaddon and Death say,
‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’
“God understands the way to it,
and he knows its place.
For he looks to the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
When he gave to the wind its weight
and apportioned out the waters by measure,
when he made a decree for the rain,
and a way for the thunderbolt,
then he saw it and declared it;
he established it and searched it out.
And he said to humankind,
‘Truly, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;
and to depart from evil is understanding.’ ”