The Berean Pursuit
Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
"Should the wise answer with windy knowledge,
and should he fill his stomach with the east wind?
Should he argue in talk that is not profitable
or in words with which he cannot do good?
"What is worse, you yourself are doing away with fear,
and you are lessening meditation before God.
For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
Your mouth condemns you, and not I;
and your lips testify against you.
"Were you born the firstborn of the human race?
And were you brought forth before the hills?
Have you listened in God’s confidential discussion?
And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
What do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that is not clear to us?
Both the gray-haired and the old are among us—
those older than your father.
"Are the consolations of God too small for you,
a word spoken gently with you?
Why does your heart carry you away?
And why do your eyes flash,
that you turn your spirit against God,
and you let such words go out of your mouth?
"What is a human being, that he can be clean,
or that one born of a woman can be righteous?
Look, he does not trust his holy ones,
and the heavens are not clean in his eyes.
How much less he who is abominable and corrupt,
a man drinking wickedness like water.
"I will show you, listen to me;
and what I have seen, I will tell—
what wise men have told,
and they have not hidden that which is from their ancestors,
to whom alone the land was given,
and no stranger passed through their midst.
"All of the wicked one’s days he is writhing,
even through the number of years that are laid up for the tyrant.
Sounds of terror are in his ears;
in prosperity the destroyer will come against him.
He cannot trust that he will return from darkness,
and he himself is destined for the sword.
"He is wandering for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
He knows that a day of darkness is ready at hand.
Anguish and distress terrify him;
they overpower him like a king ready for the battle.
Because he stretched out his hand against God,
and he was arrogant to Shaddai;
he stubbornly runs against him
with his thick-bossed shield.
"Because he has covered his face with his fat
and has gathered fat upon his loins,
he will dwell in desolate cities,
in houses that they should not inhabit,
which are destined for rubble.
He will not become rich, and his wealth will not endure,
and their possessions will not stretch across the earth.
"He will not escape from darkness;
a flame will dry up his new shoot,
and by the wind of his mouth he shall be removed.
Let him not trust in emptiness—he will be deceiving himself—
for worthlessness will be his recompense.
It will be paid in full before his time,
and his branch will not flourish.
"He will shake off his unripe fruit like the vine,
and he will cast off his blossom like the olive tree;
for the company of the godless is barren,
and fire consumes the tents of those who accept bribes.
They conceive trouble and bring forth mischief,
and their womb prepares deceit."
Then Job answered and said,
"I have heard many things like these;
all of you are miserable comforters.
Is there a limit to windy words?
What provokes you that you answer?
I myself also could talk as you,
if you were in my place;
I could join against you with words,
and I could shake at you with my head.
I could encourage you with my mouth,
and the solace of my lips would ease the pain.
If I speak, my pain is not relieved;
and if I cease, how much will leave me?
"Surely now he has worn me out;
you have devastated all my company.
Thus you shriveled me up;
it became a witness.
And my leanness has risen up against me;
it testifies to my face.
His wrath has torn, and he has been hostile toward me;
he gnashed at me with his teeth.
My foe sharpens his eyes against me.
They gaped at me with their mouth;
they struck my cheeks with disgrace;
they have massed themselves together against me.
God delivers me to an evil one,
and he casts me into the hands of the wicked.
"I was at ease, then he broke me in two,
and he seized me by my neck;
then he shattered me
and set me up as a target for him.
His archers surround me;
he slashes open my kidneys, and he does not have compassion;
he pours out my gall on the ground.
He breached me breach upon breach;
he rushes at me like a warrior.
"I have sewed sackcloth on my skin,
and I have inserted my pride in the dust.
My face is red because of weeping,
and deep shadows are on my eyelids,
although violence is not on my hands,
and my prayer is pure.
"O earth, you should not cover my blood,
and let there be no place for my cry for help.
So now look, my witness is in the heavens,
and he who vouches for me is in the heights.
My friends scorn me;
my eye pours out tears to God,
and it argues for a mortal with God,
and as a human for his friend.
Indeed, after a few years have come,
then I will go the way from which I will not return.
"My spirit is pulled down; my days are extinguished;
the graveyard is for me.
Surely mockery is with me,
and my eye rests on their provocation.
Please lay down a pledge for me with yourself;
who is he who will give security for my hand?
Indeed, you have closed their mind from understanding;
therefore, you will not let them triumph.
He denounces friends for reward,
so his children’s eyes will fail.
"And he has made me a proverb for the peoples,
and I am one before whom people spit.
And my eye has grown dim from grief,
and the limbs of my body are all like a shadow.
The upright are appalled at this,
and the innocent excites himself over the godless.
But the righteous holds on to his way,
and he who has clean hands increases in strength.
But all of you must return—please come!
But I shall not find a wise person among you.
"My days are past; my plans are broken down—
even the desires of my heart.
They make night into day,
saying, ‘Light is near to darkness.’
If I hope for Sheol as my house,
if I spread my couch in the darkness,
if I call to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
to the maggot, ‘You are my mother or my sister,’
where then is my hope?
And who will see my hope?
Will they go down to the bars of Sheol?
Or shall we descend together into the dust?"
And I looked, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him one hundred forty-four thousand who had his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder, and the sound that I heard was like harpists playing on their harps. And they were singing something like a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders, and no one was able to learn the song except the one hundred forty-four thousand who had been bought from the earth.
These are those who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were bought from humanity as first fruits to God and to the Lamb, and in their mouth a lie was not found; they are blameless.
And I saw another angel flying directly overhead, having an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who reside on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and language and people, saying with a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship the one who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the springs of water!"
And another second angel followed, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who caused all the nations to drink from the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality."
And another third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself also will drink of the wine of the anger of God that has been mixed full strength in the cup of his wrath, and will be tortured with fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torture went up forever and ever, and those who worshiped the beast and his image did not have rest day and night, along with anyone who received the mark of his name. Here is the patient endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith in Jesus.
And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write:
‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’"
"Yes," says the Spirit, "in order that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow after them."
And I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud was seated one like a son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to the one seated on the cloud, "Send out your sickle and reap, because the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe!" And the one seated on the cloud swung his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.
And another angel came out of the temple that is in heaven; he also had a sharp sickle. And another angel who had authority over the fire went out from the altar, and he called out with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Send out your sharp sickle and harvest the clusters of grapes from the vine of the earth, because its grapes are at their prime!" And the angel swung his sickle into the earth and harvested the vine of the earth, and threw the grapes into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was stomped outside the city, and blood went out from the winepress up to the bridles of the horses, about one thousand six hundred stadia.