Bildad Speaks: Man Cannot Be Righteous

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

²“Dominion and fear are with God;1

he makes peace in his high heaven.

³Is there any number to his armies?

Upon whom does his light not arise?

⁴How then can man be in the right before God?

How can he who is born of woman be pure?

⁵Behold, even the moon is not bright,

and the stars are not pure in his eyes;

⁶how much less man, who is a maggot,

and the son of man, who is a worm!”

Job Replies: God's Majesty Is Unsearchable

¹Then Job answered and said:

²“How you have helped him who has no power!

How you have saved the arm that has no strength!

³How you have counseled him who has no wisdom,

and plentifully declared sound knowledge!

⁴With whose help have you uttered words,

and whose breath has come out from you?

⁵The dead tremble

under the waters and their inhabitants.

⁶Sheol is naked before God,1

and Abaddon has no covering.

⁷He stretches out the north over the void

and hangs the earth on nothing.

⁸He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,

and the cloud is not split open under them.

⁹He covers the face of the full moon2

and spreads over it his cloud.

¹⁰He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters

at the boundary between light and darkness.

¹¹The pillars of heaven tremble

and are astounded at his rebuke.

¹²By his power he stilled the sea;

by his understanding he shattered Rahab.

¹³By his wind the heavens were made fair;

his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

¹⁴Behold, these are 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?”