Job 23-24

Job 23

¹And Job answered and said,

²Even to-day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.

³Oh that I knew where I might find him, that I might come to his seat!

⁴I would order the cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments;

⁵I would know the words he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.

⁶Would he plead against me with his great power? Nay; but he would give heed unto me.

⁷There would an upright man reason with him; and I should be delivered for ever from my judge.

⁸Lo, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I do not perceive him;

⁹On the left hand, where he doth work, but I behold him not; he hideth himself on the right hand, and I see him not.

¹⁰But he knoweth the way that I take; he trieth me, I shall come forth as gold.

¹¹My foot hath held to his steps; his way have I kept, and not turned aside.

¹²Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have laid up the words of his mouth more than the purpose of my own heart.

¹³But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? And what his soul desireth, that will he do.

¹⁴For he will perform what is appointed for me; and many such things are with him.

¹⁵Therefore am I troubled at his presence; I consider, and I am afraid of him.

¹⁶For God hath made my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me;

¹⁷Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he hidden the gloom from me.

Job 24

¹Why are not times treasured up with the Almighty? why do not they that know him see his days?

²They remove the landmarks; they violently take away the flocks and pasture them;

³They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge;

⁴They turn the needy out of the way: the afflicted of the land all hide themselves.

⁵Lo, as wild asses in the desert, they go forth to their work, seeking early for the prey: the wilderness yieldeth them food for their children.

⁶They reap in the field the fodder thereof, and they gather the vintage of the wicked;

⁷They pass the night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold;

⁸They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and for want of a shelter embrace the rock ...

⁹They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor:

¹⁰These go naked without clothing, and, hungry, they bear the sheaf;

¹¹They press out oil within their walls, they tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.

¹²Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out; and +God imputeth not the impiety.

¹³There are those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.

¹⁴The murderer riseth with the light, killeth the afflicted and needy, and in the night is as a thief.

¹⁵And the eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me; and he putteth a covering on his face.

¹⁶In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves in; they know not the light:

¹⁷For the morning is to them all as the shadow of death; for they are familiar with the terrors of the shadow of death.

¹⁸He is swift on the face of the waters; their portion is cursed on the earth: he turneth not unto the way of the vineyards.

¹⁹Drought and heat consume snow waters; so doth Sheol those that have sinned.

²⁰The womb forgetteth him; the worm feedeth sweetly on him: he shall be no more remembered; and unrighteousness is broken as a tree, --

²¹He that despoileth the barren that beareth not, and doeth not good to the widow:

²²He draweth also the mighty with his power; he riseth up, and no man is sure of life.

²³God setteth him in safety, and he resteth thereon; but his eyes are upon their ways.

²⁴They are exalted for a little, and are no more; they are laid low; like all other are they gathered, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.

²⁵If it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?