Lyrics

Job Chapter 12

Then Job answered,
"No doubt you are the most brilliant people and all wisdom will die with you. But I am not daft, I understand these things as well as you, indeed everybody knows and understands what you have spoken. I am mocked by my friends. I, the very one who called on God and whom God answered. l, who was just and blameless am now ridiculed.
You are secure and at ease and despise me in my broken state. To you, I am an example of one who has slipped and fallen. Meanwhile, the tents of robbers prosper. Yes, those who sin and provoke God go unpunished. Yes, why worry for there is no reason? God provided your every need anyway.
But now ask the beasts of the field and they will teach you, or ask the birds of the air and they will tell you, or speak to the earth and it will instruct you and the fish of the sea will explain it to you. Who among these does not know that all of creation is in the hands of the Lord and that all life lives and flows in him? We know the truth when we hear it. We know good food when we taste it.
Wisdom comes with age and the longer one lives the more understanding he gains. With God there is perfect wisdom and strength, He provides counsel and understanding.
If He destroys a thing it cannot be rebuilt, if He imprisons a man there can be no release. If He withholds the waters they dry up. If He unleashes the waters they overwhelm and flood the earth. God is full of strength and prudence. Both the deceived and the deceiver are under His power.
He causes the wise counselors to err in judgment until they are led away by the enemy, plundered and broken. He makes fools of judges. He frees the slaves from the king and binds the king and his kingdom, leading it to ruin. Yes, He leads the princes away plundered. He overthrows the mighty. He uncovers the deep things out of darkness and brings them to the light. He makes a nation great, then destroys it, to show favor on another nation prospering and guiding it to grow. He takes away the understanding of the leaders of the people and makes them wander in a pathless wilderness. They grope in the dark with no light to guide them. He makes them stagger and stumble like a drunken man.

Job Chapter 13

Behold I have seen all of this, I have heard and understand it. What you know, I also know. I am not inferior to you. Oh that I could speak to the Almighty for I desire to reason with God.
But you my friends have spoken lies about me. You are all worthless physicians in my time of need. Oh that you would be silent and exercise wisdom in this matter.
Now hear me out, hear my reasoning and the pleading of my soul. Will you speak for God? Will you talk wickedly and deceitfully for Him? Have you no respect for God? Who are you to argue and contend for God? Will it be well with you if He chooses to search you out? Or can you mock Him as one mocks a man? He will surely punish you if you show no respect. Will not His awesome presence make you afraid and fill you with dread?
Your platitudes are proverbs of ashes, your defenses and arguments concerning me are but of clay soon to crumble to dust. Now be silent, hold your peace with me and let me speak. Then let come on me what may. Why do I take my life in my own hands? For though God may slay me for what I say, yet still I trust him and knowing this I will defend my ways before him.
In God is my salvation, for a hypocrite cannot come before him. Listen carefully to my speech, to my declaration of innocence. For I have prepared my case and I know that I shall be vindicated. Who are you to argue with me? If I do not speak I shall surely die.
Only two things I ask oh God that you do not do to me, so I can continue to present myself before you. Do not withdraw away from me, or let the dread of you make me afraid. Oh call out to me my God and I will come quickly or hear my cry and come to me. How many are all my iniquities and sins? Make me know what I have done wrong. Why do you hide your face from me? Do you regard me as your enemy? Will you frighten a leaf driven to and fro? Or chase after dry stubble? For you have brought bitter things against me. You punish me for the iniquity and folly of my youth. You have put my feet in stocks and watch closely every path I take. You set a limit on every step I take. Man decays like a rotten thing, like a garment that is soon moth eaten and worn.”


Job Chapter 14

“Man who is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. He blossoms like a flower then quickly fades away, like a fleeting shadow. Oh God, why take notice of me and cast your eyes upon me bringing me to judgment before you? Who can bring a clean thing out of one born unclean? No one! Since the days and months of one's life are determined by you, you have appointed man's time on earth, his limits, and he cannot pass beyond it. Look away from me, oh Lord, and let me rest like a hired man who has finished the day.
For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down that it will sprout again, that it's tender shoots will not cease. Though its roots may grow old in the earth and its stump may die in the ground yet at the scent of water it will bud and bring forth branches like a plant. But man dies and is laid away. Indeed he breathes his last breath and where is he? As water disappears from the sea and a river becomes parched and dried up, so man lies down never to rise again. Till the heavens are no more they will not awaken, they will sleep the endless sleep.
Oh that you would hide me in the grave, conceal me until your wrath is past. That you would not forget me and at an appointed time remember me in that grave.
If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for you to have a change of heart towards me to call out to me and I will answer you. Oh that you would desire me the work of your hands. But for now you hold me accountable and number my steps. Oh that you would forgive my sin and my transgression was sealed up in a bag and cast from me, that you would cover my iniquity.
But as the mountain falls and crumbles away, as rocks are moved from their place, like water wears away stone and as torrents wash away the soil of the earth, so you destroy the hope of man. You prevail forever against him until he passes away, you change his countenance his very nature and send him away. His sons come to honor and he does not live to see it, they are brought low and he does not perceive it.
And so man lives in pain and suffering and his soul mourns these things.”