Job 7-8

Job 7

¹Is there not a warfare to man on earth? And as the days of an hireling his days?

²As a servant desireth the shadow, And as a hireling expecteth his wage,

³So I have been caused to inherit months of vanity, And nights of misery they numbered to me.

⁴If I lay down then I said, ‘When do I rise!' And evening hath been measured, And I have been full of tossings till dawn.

⁵Clothed hath been my flesh with worms, And a clod of dust, My skin hath been shrivelled and is loathsome,

⁶My days swifter than a weaving machine, And they are consumed without hope.

⁷Remember Thou that my life is a breath, Mine eye turneth not back to see good.

⁸The eye of my beholder beholdeth me not. Thine eyes are upon me -- and I am not.

⁹Consumed hath been a cloud, and it goeth, So he who is going down to Sheol cometh not up.

¹⁰He turneth not again to his house, Nor doth his place discern him again.

¹¹Also I -- I withhold not my mouth -- I speak in the distress of my spirit, I talk in the bitterness of my soul.

¹²A sea-monster am I, or a dragon, That thou settest over me a guard?

¹³When I said, ‘My bed doth comfort me,' He taketh away in my talking my couch.

¹⁴And thou hast affrighted me with dreams, And from visions thou terrifiest me,

¹⁵And my soul chooseth strangling, Death rather than my bones.

¹⁶I have wasted away -- not to the age do I live. Cease from me, for my days are vanity.

¹⁷What is man that Thou dost magnify him? And that Thou settest unto him Thy heart?

¹⁸And inspectest him in the mornings, In the evenings dost try him?

¹⁹How long dost Thou not look from me? Thou dost not desist till I swallow my spittle.

²⁰I have sinned, what do I to Thee, O watcher of man? Why hast Thou set me for a mark to Thee, And I am for a burden to myself -- and what?

²¹Thou dost not take away my transgression, And cause to pass away mine iniquity, Because now, for dust I lie down: And Thou hast sought me -- and I am not!

Job 8

¹And Bildad the Shuhite answereth and saith: --

²Till when dost thou speak these things? And a strong wind -- sayings of thy mouth?

³Doth God pervert judgment? And doth the Mighty One pervert justice?

⁴If thy sons have sinned before Him, And He doth send them away, By the hand of their transgression,

⁵If thou dost seek early unto God, And unto the Mighty makest supplication,

⁶If pure and upright thou art, Surely now He waketh for thee, And hath completed The habitation of thy righteousness.

⁷And thy beginning hath been small, And thy latter end is very great.

⁸For, ask I pray thee of a former generation, And prepare to a search of their fathers,

⁹(For of yesterday we are, and we know not, For a shadow are our days on earth.)

¹⁰Do they not shew thee -- speak to thee, And from their heart bring forth words?

¹¹‘Doth a rush wise without mire? A reed increase without water?

¹²While it is in its budding -- uncropt, Even before any herb it withereth.

¹³So are the paths of all forgetting God, And the hope of the profane doth perish,

¹⁴Whose confidence is loathsome, And the house of a spider his trust.

¹⁵He leaneth on his house -- and it standeth not: He taketh hold on it -- and it abideth not.

¹⁶Green he is before the sun, And over his garden his branch goeth out.

¹⁷By a heap his roots are wrapped, A house of stones he looketh for.

¹⁸If one doth destroy him from his place, Then it hath feigned concerning him, I have not seen thee!

¹⁹Lo, this is the joy of his way, And from the dust others spring up.'

²⁰Lo, God doth not reject the perfect, Nor taketh hold on the hand of evil doers.

²¹While he filleth with laughter thy mouth, And thy lips with shouting,

²²Those hating thee do put on shame, And the tent of the wicked is not!