Job 16-19

Job 16

¹And Job answereth and saith: --

²I have heard many such things, Miserable comforters are ye all.

³Is there an end to words of wind? Or what doth embolden thee that thou answerest?

⁴I also, like you, might speak, If your soul were in my soul's stead. I might join against you with words, And nod at you with my head.

⁵I might harden you with my mouth, And the moving of my lips might be sparing.

⁶If I speak, my pain is not restrained, And I cease -- what goeth from me?

⁷Only, now, it hath wearied me; Thou hast desolated all my company,

⁸And Thou dost loathe me, For a witness it hath been, And rise up against me doth my failure, In my face it testifieth.

⁹His anger hath torn, and he hateth me, He hath gnashed at me with his teeth, My adversary sharpeneth his eyes for me.

¹⁰They have gaped on me with their mouth, In reproach they have smitten my cheeks, Together against me they set themselves.

¹¹God shutteth me up unto the perverse, And to the hands of the wicked turneth me over.

¹²At ease I have been, and he breaketh me, And he hath laid hold on my neck, And he breaketh me in pieces, And he raiseth me to him for a mark.

¹³Go round against me do his archers. He splitteth my reins, and spareth not, He poureth out to the earth my gall.

¹⁴He breaketh me -- breach upon breach, He runneth upon me as a mighty one.

¹⁵Sackcloth I have sewed on my skin, And have rolled in the dust my horn.

¹⁶My face is foul with weeping, And on mine eyelids is death-shade.

¹⁷Not for violence in my hands, And my prayer is pure.

¹⁸O earth, do not thou cover my blood! And let there not be a place for my cry.

¹⁹Also, now, lo, in the heavens is my witness, And my testifier in the high places.

²⁰My interpreter is my friend, Unto God hath mine eye dropped:

²¹And he reasoneth for a man with God, And a son of man for his friend.

²²When a few years do come, Then a path I return not do I go.

Job 17

¹My spirit hath been destroyed, My days extinguished -- graves are for me.

²If not -- mockeries are with me. And in their provocations mine eye lodgeth.

³Place, I pray Thee, my pledge with Thee; Who is he that striketh hand with me?

⁴For their heart Thou hast hidden From understanding, Therefore Thou dost not exalt them.

⁵For a portion he sheweth friendship, And the eyes of his sons are consumed.

⁶And he set me up for a proverb of the peoples, And a wonder before them I am.

⁷And dim from sorrow is mine eye, And my members as a shadow all of them.

⁸Astonished are the upright at this, And the innocent against the profane Stirreth himself up.

⁹And the righteous layeth hold on his way, And the clean of hands addeth strength, And -- dumb are they all.

¹⁰Return, and come in, I pray you, And I find not among you a wise man.

¹¹My days have passed by, My devices have been broken off, The possessions of my heart!

¹²Night for day they appoint, Light is near because of darkness.

¹³If I wait -- Sheol is my house, In darkness I have spread out my couch.

¹⁴To corruption I have called: -- ‘Thou art my father.' ‘My mother' and ‘my sister' -- to the worm.

¹⁵And where is now my hope? Yea, my hope, who doth behold it?

¹⁶To the parts of Sheol ye go down, If together on the dust we may rest.

Job 18

¹And Bildad the Shuhite answereth and saith: --

²When do ye set an end to words? Consider ye, and afterwards do we speak.

³Wherefore have we been reckoned as cattle? We have been defiled in your eyes!

⁴(He is tearing himself in his anger.) For thy sake is earth forsaken? And removed is a rock from its place?

⁵Also, the light of the wicked is extinguished. And there doth not shine a spark of his fire.

⁶The light hath been dark in his tent, And his lamp over him is extinguished.

⁷Straitened are the steps of his strength, And cast him down doth his own counsel.

⁸For he is sent into a net by his own feet, And on a snare he doth walk habitually.

⁹Seize on the heel doth a gin, Prevail over him do the designing.

¹⁰Hidden in the earth is his cord, And his trap on the path.

¹¹Round about terrified him have terrors, And they have scattered him -- at his feet.

¹²Hungry is his sorrow, And calamity is ready at his side.

¹³It consumeth the parts of his skin, Consume his parts doth death's first-born.

¹⁴Drawn from his tent is his confidence, And it causeth him to step to the king of terrors.

¹⁵It dwelleth in his tent -- out of his provender, Scattered over his habitation is sulphur.

¹⁶From beneath his roots are dried up, And from above cut off is his crop.

¹⁷His memorial hath perished from the land, And he hath no name on the street.

¹⁸They thrust him from light unto darkness, And from the habitable earth cast him out.

¹⁹He hath no continuator, Nor successor among his people, And none is remaining in his dwellings.

²⁰At this day westerns have been astonished And easterns have taken fright.

²¹Only these are tabernacles of the perverse, And this the place God hath not known.

Job 19

¹And Job answereth and saith: --

²Till when do ye afflict my soul, And bruise me with words?

³These ten times ye put me to shame, ye blush not. Ye make yourselves strange to me --

⁴And also -- truly, I have erred, With me doth my error remain.

⁵If, truly, over me ye magnify yourselves, And decide against me my reproach;

⁶Know now, that God turned me upside down, And His net against me hath set round,

⁷Lo, I cry out -- violence, and am not answered, I cry aloud, and there is no judgment.

⁸My way He hedged up, and I pass not over, And on my paths darkness He placeth.

⁹Mine honour from off me He hath stripped, And He turneth the crown from my head.

¹⁰He breaketh me down round about, and I go, And removeth like a tree my hope.

¹¹And He kindleth against me His anger, And reckoneth me to Him as His adversaries.

¹²Come in do His troops together, And they raise up against me their way, And encamp round about my tent.

¹³My brethren from me He hath put far off, And mine acquaintances surely Have been estranged from me.

¹⁴Ceased have my neighbours And my familiar friends have forgotten me,

¹⁵Sojourners of my house and my maids, For a stranger reckon me: An alien I have been in their eyes.

¹⁶To my servant I have called, And he doth not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him.

¹⁷My spirit is strange to my wife, And my favours to the sons of my mother's womb.

¹⁸Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me.

¹⁹Abominate me do all the men of my counsel, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me.

²⁰To my skin and to my flesh Cleaved hath my bone, And I deliver myself with the skin of my teeth.

²¹Pity me, pity me, ye my friends, For the hand of God hath stricken against me.

²²Why do you pursue me as God? And with my flesh are not satisfied?

²³Who doth grant now, That my words may be written? Who doth grant that in a book they may be graven?

²⁴With a pen of iron and lead -- For ever in a rock they may be hewn.

²⁵That -- I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For the dust he doth rise.

²⁶And after my skin hath compassed this body, Then from my flesh I see God:

²⁷Whom I -- I see on my side, And mine eyes have beheld, and not a stranger, Consumed have been my reins in my bosom.

²⁸But ye say, ‘Why do we pursue after him?' And the root of the matter hath been found in me.

²⁹Be ye afraid because of the sword, For furious are the punishments of the sword, That ye may know that there is a judgment.