1. LAND OF DARKNESS

Where have you come from?”
From wandering all over the earth.”"

Have you thought about my servant ? No one in the world is like him! He is a man of integrity: He is decent, he fears Elohim, and he stays away from evil.”"
Haven’t you given Him a reason to fear Elohim?"

“Naked I came from my mother,
and naked I will return.

Isn’t my life short enough?
So stop this, and leave me alone.
Let me smile a little before I go away
to a land of darkness and gloom.


2. CURSE THE BLACK DAY OF BIRTH

“Skin for skin! Certainly, a man will give everything he has for his life.

But stretch out your hand, and strike his flesh and bones. I bet he’ll curse you to your face.”

“He is in your power, but you must spare his life!”"

“Scratch out the day I was born
and the night that said, ‘A boy has been conceived!’ “That day —
let it be pitch-black.

Let no light shine on it. Let the darkness and long shadows claim it as their own.
Let a dark cloud hang over it.
That night
let the blackness take it away.
Let it not be included in the days of the year
or be numbered among the months. Let that night be empty.

(those who know how to wake up Leviathan
curse that night. Let its stars turn dark before dawn.


Let it not see the first light of dawn because it did not shut the doors of the womb from which I came
or hide my eyes from trouble."


3. ACCUSED

Do you actually have human eyes?
Do you see as a mortal sees? Are your days like a mortal’s days?
Are your years like a human’s years? Is that why you look for guilt in me
and search for sin in me? You know I’m not guilty,
but there is no one to rescue me from your hands. “‘Your hands formed me and made every part of me,
then you turned to destroy me. Please remember that you made me out of clay
and that you will return me to the dust again. Didn’t you pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese? Didn’t you dress me in skin and flesh
and weave me together with bones and tendons? You gave me life and mercy.
Your watchfulness has preserved my spirit. But in your heart you hid these things.
I know this is what you did


4. TORMENTED

“How long will you torment me
and depress me with words? You have insulted me ten times now.
You’re not even ashamed of mistreating me. Even if it were true that I’ve made a mistake without realizing it,
my mistake would affect only me. If you are trying to make yourselves look better than me
by using my disgrace as an argument against me, then I want you to know that Eloah has wronged me
and surrounded me with his net. Indeed, I cry, ‘Help! I’m being attacked!’ but I get no response.
I call for help, but there is no justice. “Eloah has blocked my path so that I can’t go on.
He has made my paths dark."

Even after my skin has been stripped off my body,
I will see Eloah in my own flesh. I will see him with my own eyes,
not with someone else’s.
My heart fails inside me! “You say,
‘We will persecute him!
The root of the problem is found in him.’ Fear death,
because your anger is punishable by death.
Then you will know there is a judge.”"


5. A BITTER TONGUE

“My complaint is bitter again today.
I try hard to control my sighing. “If only I knew where I could find God!
I would go where he lives."

Job 23:6-12: "Would he sue me and hide behind great legal maneuvers?
No, he certainly would press charges against me. Then decent people could argue with him,
and I would escape my judgment forever. However, if I go east, he isn’t there.
If I go west, I can’t find him. If I go northward, where he is at work, I can’t observe him.
If I turn southward, I can’t see him. I can’t find him because he knows the road I take.
When he tests me,
I’ll come out as pure as gold. I have followed his footsteps closely.
I have stayed on his path and did not turn from it. I have not left his commands behind.
I have treasured his words in my heart."

Job 23:16-17: "El has discouraged me.
Shadday has filled me with terror. But I am not silenced by the dark
or by the thick darkness that covers my face."


6. SCUM

Such people are among those who rebel against the light.
They are not acquainted with its ways.
They do not stay on its paths. At dawn murderers rise; they kill the poor and needy.
At night they become thieves. Adulterers watch for twilight.
They say, ‘No one is watching us,’ as they cover their faces. In the dark, they break into houses,
but by day they lock themselves in.
They do not even know the light, because morning and deep darkness are the same to them,
because they are familiar with the terrors of deep darkness. Such people are like scum on the surface of the water.
Their property is cursed in the land.
People do not travel the road that goes to their vineyards. Just as drought and heat steal water from snow,
so the grave steals people who sin."


7. WHISPER OF HIM

Job 26:2-14: "“You have helped the person who has no power
and saved the arm that isn’t strong. You have advised the person who has no wisdom
and offered so much assistance. To whom have you spoken these words,
and whose spirit has spoken through you? “The souls of the dead tremble beneath the water,
and so do the creatures living there. Sheol is naked in God’s presence,
and Abaddon has no clothing. “He stretches out his heavens [1] over empty space.
He hangs the earth on nothing whatsoever. He holds the water in his thick clouds,
and the clouds don’t even split under its weight. He covers his throne [2]
by spreading his cloud over it. He marks the horizon on the surface of the water
at the boundary where light meets dark. The pillars of heaven tremble
and are astonished when he yells at them. With his power he calmed the sea.
With his insight he killed Rahab the sea monster. With his wind the sky was cleared.
With his hand he stabbed the fleeing snake. “These are only glimpses of what he does.
We only hear a whisper of him!
Who can understand the thunder of his power?”"


8. DUST AND ASHES

Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions?, Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone.

What is the way to the abode of light?
And where does darkness reside?
Can you take them to their places?
Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
Surely you know, for you were already born!
You have lived so many years!

You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak.
I will ask you, and you will teach me.’ I had heard about you with my own ears,
but now I have seen you with my own eyes. That is why I take back what I said,
and I sit in dust and ashes to show that I am sorry.”