Job 41 - Psalm 1
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 41
1 “Any hope you have in this regard would be futile;
just the mere sight of it would convince you to retreat.
2 How ferocious it is when aroused!
No one could ever stand up to confront it.[a]
3 Who has attacked it and remained unscathed?
There has never been anyone under the heavens.
4 “Nor will I keep silence about its limbs,
or its strength, or its magnificent frame.
5 Who can strip off its outer garment
or pierce the reinforced armor of its breastplate?
6 Who has ever managed to force open the doors of its mouth
and beheld the teeth that leave one in terror?
7 “Rows of shields adorn its back
and are tightly sealed together.
8 One presses so close to the next
that no air can pass between them.
9 Each is so joined, one to another,
that they hold fast and cannot be separated.
10 “When it sneezes, sprays of light[b] flash forth,
and its eyes are like the rays of the dawn.
11 Fiery torches emerge from its mouth
and sparks come flying out.
12 Smoke issues forth from its nostrils
as from a boiling pot on the fire.
13 Its breath sets coals ablaze,
and flames pour forth from its mouth.
14 “Strength resides in its neck,
causing terror to all who behold it.
15 The folds of its flesh are joined together,
firmly set in place and immovable.
16 Its heart is as hard as stone,
as unyielding as the lower millstone.
17 When it rears up, strong men become terrified,
and the waves of the sea retreat.
18 “Even though the sword reaches it, there is no penetration,
nor is there with the spear, the dart, or the javelin.
19 It regards iron as straw
and bronze as rotting wood.
20 No arrow can force it to flee;
slingstones it regards as nothing but chaff.
21 To it a club is like a splinter,
and it laughs at the javelins that are hurled at it.
22 “Its lower parts are protected with jagged potsherds,
and it moves across the mire like a threshing sledge.
23 It causes the depths to boil like a cauldron;
it churns the sea like a pot of ointment.
24 Behind it there is left a shining trail,
and in its wake the deep appears to be white-haired.
25 It has no equal upon the earth;
it is a creature that is utterly fearless.
26 It looks down upon all, even the highest;
it is king over all wild beasts.”
Chapter 42
Job’s Final Response[c]
Now I Have Seen You with My Own Eyes. 1 Job then answered the Lord in these words:
2 “I know that you can do all things
and that no plan you conceive can be thwarted.
3 Because of my ignorance
I have spoken of things that I have not understood,
of things too wondrous for me to know.
4 “You had said, ‘Listen and let me speak.
I intend to put questions to you,
and you must give me your answers.’
5 I had heard of you only by hearsay,
but now that I have seen you with my own eyes,
6 I retract what I have said,
repenting in dust and ashes.”
Epilogue: Job’s Honor and Goods Are Restored[d]
You Have Not Spoken About Me As You Should Have Done.[e] 7 After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken about me as you should, as my servant Job has. 8 Therefore, now take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering. Then my servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer not to punish you severely, for you have not spoken about me as you should, as my servant Job has.”
9 Therefore, Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went forth and did what the Lord had commanded them. And the Lord accepted the intercession of Job.
10 God Restores the Prosperity of Job.[f] Thereupon the Lord restored the prosperity of Job after he had prayed for his friends, and he enriched him with twice as much as he had possessed before. 11 Then all his brothers and sisters came to him, as well as all his friends from former days. As they feasted with him in his house, they sympathized with him about his previous troubles, and they comforted him for all the misfortunes that the Lord had permitted to be inflicted upon him. Moreover, each of them gave him some money and a gold ring.
12 The Lord blessed the end of Job’s life more than the beginning. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand donkeys. 13 He also fathered seven sons and three daughters. 14 He named the eldest daughter Jemimah,[g] the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. 15 In the entire land there were no women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers.[h]
16 After this, Job lived for another one hundred and forty years, and he saw his children and his children’s children to the fourth generation. 17 Then Job died at a very great age.
Prologue—Psalms 1–2[i]
Psalm 1[j]
True Happiness
1 Blessed[k] is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stand in the way of sinners,
nor sit in the company of scoffers.
2 Rather, his delight is in the law of the Lord,[l]
and on that law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted near streams of water,
which bears fruit in its season,
and whose leaves never wither.[m]
In the same way,
everything he does will prosper.
4 This is not true of the wicked,
for they are like chaff that the wind blows away.[n]
5 Therefore, the wicked will not stand firm at the judgment,[o]
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord watches over[p] the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
Footnotes
- Job 41:2 Confront it: some translate: “confront me.”
- Job 41:10 Light: a vapor that gleams in the light of the sun. Its eyes: in Egyptian hieroglyphics, the irridescent red in the eye of the crocodile symbolizes the dawn.
- Job 42:1 Suffering is still mysterious, but Job humbles himself before God. He was wrong, posing as a judge in the name of too human an idea of God. He has now encountered God, i.e., he has had a new experience of God, a new perception of his mystery, and it has transformed him interiorly. Job can entrust himself with confidence to this God of infinite grandeur and unlimited power.
- Job 42:7 With Job’s reply (vv. 1-6), the drama has come to an end, but the author does not want to leave his readers in ignorance of what became of the principal players. Here is the Lord’s definitive judgment: the friends of Job are blameworthy, and Job, God’s impatient but faithful servant, has the greatest blessings heaped upon him.
- Job 42:7 God conducts the trial of the three friends. Job’s prayer will obtain pardon for them.
- Job 42:10 Job shows his greatness through his goodness, for he intercedes for those who have treated him harshly. Job recovers double what he previously had of honors, riches, posterity, length of life, and heaped-up possessions: all the rewards of the righteous, all the prosperity of the Patriarchs.
- Job 42:14 Jemimah: i.e., “dove.” Keziah: i.e., “cassia” or “cinnamon.” Keren-happuch: i.e., “eye cosmetic.”
- Job 42:15 Normally, daughters received an inheritance only when there were no sons (see Num 27:1-11).
- Psalm 1:1 These first two psalms are regarded as a preface to the entire Psalter. Collections of psalms that were originally different were gradually regrouped to comprise the Psalter as we have it; the psalms attributed to David (3–41 and 51–72), the songs of Ascents (120–134), and the chants of the Hallel (105–107, 111–118, 135–150) constitute the most remarkable of these primary collections. But as presently arranged in our Bible, the Book of Psalms is divided like the Pentateuch (the first five Books of the Bible that are called the Law) into five unequal parts, each of which ends with a formula of acclamation.
- Psalm 1:1 At the entrance to the collection of the Psalms, we are immediately placed before a life-choice: God or nothingness. This option imposes itself on us throughout all the pages of the Bible. In the historical accounts, law codes, prophecies, prayers, and meditative texts, a line of division is set forth. It distinguishes between righteousness and impiety, self-reliance and faith, good and evil, wickedness and love. The words are varied and the experiences are numerous in order to bear witness to this rupture.
They mark a division between peoples, between individuals, and between the acts and projects of our lives. Appearances may produce change and daily contradict the faithful’s overly naive dreams about prosperity; however, one fact remains: a life of righteousness and truth is a path of happiness, a path to God, whereas those who deaden their conscience for their own ends have no other future but ruin.
Every time a reader prays a psalm, he or she is forced to choose between the “two ways” (see Deut 30:15; Prov 4:18f; Jer 21:8), the difference between which is underscored by Jesus (see Mt 7:13; 25). The righteous are blessed for they are separated from sin, Bible-centered, and prosperous. Unlike them are the wicked who are doomed to judgment. - Psalm 1:1 The Psalter begins by declaring the blessedness of the righteous (v. 1) and concludes by summoning all creation to praise God in heaven and on earth (Ps 150). Human beings are made for happiness, and the revealed moral law is oriented toward that happiness. Blessed: the happy state of life in fellowship with God, revering him and obeying his laws (see Pss 94:12; 112:1; 119:1f; 128:1; Prov 29:18). Scoffers: those who reject God and his law (see Prov 1:10-19).
- Psalm 1:2 The law of the Lord: either the first five Books of the Bible, known as the Torah (law), or divine instruction. Meditates: literally, “murmurs,” i.e., assimilates the law of life that incarnates the presence of God and teaches the believer how to attain joyous intimacy with the Lord. Indeed, the law is a judgment of God and a happiness for human beings.
- Psalm 1:3 Like a tree . . . never wither: the righteous are able to withstand the rigors of life. Like a tree planted on fertile ground, they are able to enhance their spiritual life.
- Psalm 1:4 Like chaff . . . blows away: the wicked are completely powerless spiritually, for they are like chaff that is easily borne away, even by the slightest breeze.
- Psalm 1:5 At the judgment—either God’s judgment of the wicked during life (see Pss 76:7f; 130:3; Ezr 9:15) or his judgment of them at the end of time (see Mal 3:2; Mt 25:31-46; Rev 6:17)—the wicked will bear the brunt of their misdeeds. Righteous: a name for the faithful People of God, i.e., those who reverence God and diligently strive to carry out his laws in every phase of their lives.
- Psalm 1:6 Watches over: the Lord takes an avid interest in their conduct (see Pss 31:7f; 37:18; Gen 18:19; Am 3:2; Nah 1:7). The way of the wicked will perish: a similar fate is set forth for the wicked in Ps 112:10: “the desires of the wicked will be fruitless.” The theme of the two ways has already been found in Deut 30:15f and Jer 21:8; it will be taken up again in Prov 4:18f and Mt 7:13.
