1 Then Job answered
and said,
2 I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye
all.
3 Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that
thou answerest?
4 I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's
stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head
at you.
5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of
my lips should asswage your grief.
6 Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear,
what am I eased?
7 But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all
my company.
8 And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness
against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness
to my face.
9 He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon
me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
10 They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten
me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves
together against me.
11 God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over
into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also
taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up
for his mark.
13 His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins
asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the
ground.
14 He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me
like a giant.
15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn
in the dust.
16 My face is foul with weeping, and my eyelids is the shadow
of death;
17 Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.
18 O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no
place.
19 Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record
is on high.
20 My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto
God.
21 O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth
for his neighbour!
22 When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence
I shall not return.
Chapter 17
1 My breath is
corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
2 Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue
in their provocation?
3 Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that
will strike hands with me?
4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore
shalt thou not exalt them.
5 He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of
his children shall fail.
6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime
I was as a tabret.
7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members
are as a shadow.
8 Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall
stir up himself against the hypocrite.
9 The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath
clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot
find one wise man among you.
11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts
of my heart.
12 They change the night into day: the light is short because
of darkness.
13 If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in
the darkness.
14 I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm,
Thou are my mother, and my sister.
15 And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest
together is in the dust.
Chapter 18
1 Then answered
Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
2 How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and
afterwards we will speak.
3 Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your
sight?
4 He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken
for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?
5 Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark
of his fire shall not shine.
6 The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle
shall be put out with him.
7 The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own
counsel shall cast him down.
8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh
upon a snare.
9 The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail
against him.
10 The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him
in the way.
11 Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive
him to his feet.
12 His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction shall
be ready at his side.
13 It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn
of death shall devour his strength.
14 His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and
it shall bring him to the king of terrors.
15 It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his:
brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.
16 His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his
branch be cut off.
17 His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall
have no name in the street.
18 He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out
of the world.
19 He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor
any remaining in his dwellings.
20 They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as
they that went before were affrighted.
21 Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is
the place of him that knoweth not God. |