Job 9-12

Job 9

¹And Job answered and said,

²Of a truth I know it is so; but how can man be just with God?

³If he shall choose to strive with him, he cannot answer him one thing of a thousand.

⁴He is wise in heart and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and had peace?

⁵Who removeth mountains, and they know it not, when he overturneth them in his anger;

⁶Who shaketh the earth out of its place, and the pillars thereof tremble;

⁷Who commandeth the sun, and it riseth not, and he sealeth up the stars;

⁸Who alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the high waves of the sea;

⁹Who maketh the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south;

¹⁰Who doeth great things past finding out, and wonders without number.

¹¹Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not; and he passeth along, and I perceive him not.

¹²Behold, he taketh away: who will hinder him? Who will say unto him, What doest thou?

¹³+God withdraweth not his anger; the proud helpers stoop under him:

¹⁴How much less shall I answer him, choose out my words to strive with him?

¹⁵Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer; I would make supplication to my judge.

¹⁶If I had called, and he had answered me, I would not believe that he hearkened to my voice, --

¹⁷He, who crusheth me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause.

¹⁸He suffereth me not to take my breath, for he filleth me with bitternesses.

¹⁹Be it a question of strength, lo, he is strong; and be it of judgment, who will set me a time?

²⁰If I justified myself, mine own mouth would condemn me; were I perfect, he would prove me perverse.

²¹Were I perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life.

²²It is all one; therefore I said, he destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.

²³If the scourge kill suddenly, he mocketh at the trial of the innocent.

²⁴The earth is given over into the hand of the wicked man; he covereth the faces of its judges. If not, who then is it?

²⁵And my days are swifter than a runner: they flee away, they see no good.

²⁶They pass by like skiffs of reed; as an eagle that swoops upon the prey.

²⁷If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my sad countenance, and brighten up,

²⁸I am afraid of all my sorrows; I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent.

²⁹Be it that I am wicked, why then do I labour in vain?

³⁰If I washed myself with snow-water, and cleansed my hands in purity,

³¹Then wouldest thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes would abhor me.

³²For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him; that we should come together in judgment.

³³There is not an umpire between us, who should lay his hand upon us both.

³⁴Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his terror make me afraid,

³⁵Then I will speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me.

Job 10

¹My soul is weary of my life: I will give free course to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

²I will say unto +God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou strivest with me.

³Doth it please thee to oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thy hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?

⁴Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?

⁵Are thy days as the days of a mortal? are thy years as a man's days,

⁶That thou searchest after mine iniquity, and inquirest into my sin;

⁷Since thou knowest that I am not wicked, and that there is none that delivereth out of thy hand?

⁸Thy hands have bound me together and made me as one, round about; yet dost thou swallow me up!

⁹Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as clay, and wilt bring me into dust again.

¹⁰Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?

¹¹Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews;

¹²Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy care hath preserved my spirit;

¹³And these things didst thou hide in thy heart; I know that this was with thee.

¹⁴If I sinned, thou wouldest mark me, and thou wouldest not acquit me of mine iniquity.

¹⁵If I were wicked, woe unto me! and righteous, I will not lift up my head, being so full of shame, and beholding mine affliction; --

¹⁶And it increaseth: thou huntest me as a fierce lion; and ever again thou shewest thy marvellous power upon me.

¹⁷Thou renewest thy witnesses before me and increasest thy displeasure against me; successions of evil and a time of toil are with me.

¹⁸And wherefore didst thou bring me forth out of the womb? I had expired, and no eye had seen me.

¹⁹I should be as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

²⁰Are not my days few? cease then and let me alone, that I may revive a little,

²¹Before I go, and never to return, -- to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;

²²A land of gloom, as darkness itself; of the shadow of death, without any order, where the light is as thick darkness.

Job 11

¹And Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,

²Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man of much talk be justified?

³Should thy fictions make men hold their peace? and shouldest thou mock, and no one make thee ashamed?

⁴For thou sayest, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in thine eyes.

⁵But oh that +God would speak, and open his lips against thee;

⁶And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, how that they are the double of what is realised; and know that +God passeth by much of thine iniquity!

⁷Canst thou by searching find out +God? canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection?

⁸It is as the heights of heaven; what wilt thou do? deeper than Sheol; what canst thou know?

⁹The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.

¹⁰If he pass by, and shut up, and call to judgment, who can hinder him?

¹¹For he knoweth vain men, and seeth wickedness when man doth not consider it;

¹²Yet a senseless man will make bold, though man be born like the foal of a wild ass.

¹³If thou prepare thy heart and stretch out thy hands toward him,

¹⁴If thou put far away the iniquity which is in thy hand, and let not wrong dwell in thy tents;

¹⁵Surely then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot, and thou shalt be stedfast and shalt not fear:

¹⁶For thou shalt forget misery; as waters that are passed away shalt thou remember it;

¹⁷And life shall arise brighter than noonday; though thou be enshrouded in darkness, thou shalt be as the morning,

¹⁸And thou shalt have confidence, because there shall be hope; and having searched about thee, thou shalt take rest in safety.

¹⁹Yea, thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid; and many shall seek thy favour.

²⁰But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and all refuge shall vanish from them, and their hope shall be the breathing out of life.

Job 12

¹And Job answered and said,

²Truly ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you!

³I also have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you; and who knoweth not such things as these?

⁴I am to be one that is a derision to his friend, I who call upon +God, and whom he will answer: a derision is the just upright man.

⁵He that is ready to stumble with the foot is a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.

⁶The tents of desolators are in peace, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand +God bringeth.

⁷But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowl of the heavens, and they shall tell thee;

⁸Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee; and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.

⁹Who knoweth not in all these, that the hand of Jehovah hath wrought this?

¹⁰In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the spirit of all flesh of man.

¹¹Doth not the ear try words, as the palate tasteth food?

¹²With the aged is wisdom, and in length of days understanding.

¹³With him is wisdom and might; he hath counsel and understanding.

¹⁴Behold, he breaketh down, and it is not built again; he shutteth up a man, and there is no opening.

¹⁵Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up; and he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth.

¹⁶With him is strength and effectual knowledge; the deceived and the deceiver are his.

¹⁷He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and judges maketh he fools;

¹⁸He weakeneth the government of kings, and bindeth their loins with a fetter;

¹⁹He leadeth priests away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty;

²⁰He depriveth of speech the trusty, and taketh away the judgment of the elders;

²¹He poureth contempt upon nobles, and slackeneth the girdle of the mighty;

²²He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out into light the shadow of death;

²³He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them; he spreadeth out the nations, and bringeth them in;

²⁴He taketh away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a pathless waste.

²⁵They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunkard.