Job 16-19

Job 16

¹And Job made answer and said,

²Such things have frequently come to my ears: you are comforters who only give trouble.

³May words which are like the wind be stopped? or what is troubling you to make answer to them?

⁴It would not be hard for me to say such things if your souls were in my soul's place; joining words together against you, and shaking my head at you:

⁵I might give you strength with my mouth, and not keep back the comfort of my lips.

⁶If I say what is in my mind, my pain becomes no less: and if I keep quiet, how much of it goes from me?

⁷But now he has overcome me with weariness and fear, and I am in the grip of all my trouble.

⁸It has come up as a witness against me, and the wasting of my flesh makes answer to my face.

⁹I am broken by his wrath, and his hate has gone after me; he has made his teeth sharp against me: my haters are looking on me with cruel eyes;

¹⁰Their mouths are open wide against me; the blows of his bitter words are falling on my face; all of them come together in a mass against me.

¹¹God gives me over to the power of sinners, sending me violently into the hands of evil-doers.

¹²I was in comfort, but I have been broken up by his hands; he has taken me by the neck, shaking me to bits; he has put me up as a mark for his arrows.

¹³His bowmen come round about me; their arrows go through my body without mercy; my life is drained out on the earth.

¹⁴I am broken with wound after wound; he comes rushing on me like a man of war.

¹⁵I have made haircloth the clothing of my skin, and my horn is rolled in the dust.

¹⁶My face is red with weeping, and my eyes are becoming dark;

¹⁷Though my hands have done no violent acts, and my prayer is clean.

¹⁸O earth, let not my blood be covered, and let my cry have no resting-place!

¹⁹Even now my witness is in heaven, and the supporter of my cause is on high.

²⁰My friends make sport of me; to God my eyes are weeping,

²¹So that he may give decision for a man in his cause with God, and between a son of man and his neighbour.

²²For in a short time I will take the journey from which I will not come back.

Job 17

¹My spirit is broken, my days are ended, the last resting-place is ready for me.

²Truly, those who make sport of me are round about me, and my eyes become dark because of their bitter laughing.

³Be pleased, now, to be responsible for me to yourself; for there is no other who will put his hand in mine.

⁴You have kept their hearts from wisdom: for this cause you will not give them honour.

⁵As for him who is false to his friend for a reward, light will be cut off from the eyes of his children.

⁶He has made me a word of shame to the peoples; I have become a mark for their sport.

⁷My eyes have become dark because of my pain, and all my body is wasted to a shade.

⁸The upright are surprised at this, and he who has done no wrong is troubled because of the evil-doers.

⁹Still the upright keeps on his way, and he who has clean hands gets new strength.

¹⁰But come back, now, all of you, come; and I will not see a wise man among you.

¹¹My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the desires of my heart.

¹²They are changing night into day; they say, The light is near the dark.

¹³If I am waiting for the underworld as my house, if I have made my bed in the dark;

¹⁴If I say to the earth, You are my father; and to the worm, My mother and my sister;

¹⁵Where then is my hope? and who will see my desire?

¹⁶Will they go down with me into the underworld? Will we go down together into the dust?

Job 18

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite made answer and said,

²How long will it be before you have done talking? Get wisdom, and then we will say what is in our minds.

³Why do we seem as beasts in your eyes, and as completely without knowledge?

⁴But come back, now, come: you who are wounding yourself in your passion, will the earth be given up because of you, or a rock be moved out of its place?

⁵For the light of the sinner is put out, and the flame of his fire is not shining.

⁶The light is dark in his tent, and the light shining over him is put out.

⁷The steps of his strength become short, and by his design destruction overtakes him.

⁸His feet take him into the net, and he goes walking into the cords.

⁹His foot is taken in the net; he comes into its grip.

¹⁰The twisted cord is put secretly in the earth to take him, and the cord is placed in his way.

¹¹He is overcome by fears on every side, they go after him at every step.

¹²His strength is made feeble for need of food, and destruction is waiting for his falling footstep.

¹³His skin is wasted by disease, and his body is food for the worst of diseases.

¹⁴He is pulled out of his tent where he was safe, and he is taken away to the king of fears.

¹⁵In his tent will be seen that which is not his, burning stone is dropped on his house.

¹⁶Under the earth his roots are dry, and over it his branch is cut off.

¹⁷His memory is gone from the earth, and in the open country there is no knowledge of his name.

¹⁸He is sent away from the light into the dark; he is forced out of the world.

¹⁹He has no offspring or family among his people, and in his living-place there is no one of his name.

²⁰At his fate those of the west are shocked, and those of the east are overcome with fear.

²¹Truly, these are the houses of the sinner, and this is the place of him who has no knowledge of God.

Job 19

¹And Job made answer and said,

²How long will you make my life bitter, crushing me with words?

³Ten times now you have made sport of me; it gives you no sense of shame to do me wrong.

⁴And, truly, if I have been in error, the effect of my error is only on myself.

⁵If you make yourselves great against me, using my punishment as an argument against me,

⁶Be certain that it is God who has done me wrong, and has taken me in his net.

⁷Truly, I make an outcry against the violent man, but there is no answer: I give a cry for help, but no one takes up my cause.

⁸My way is walled up by him so that I may not go by: he has made my roads dark.

⁹He has put off my glory from me, and taken the crown from my head.

¹⁰I am broken down by him on every side, and I am gone; my hope is uprooted like a tree.

¹¹His wrath is burning against me, and I am to him as one of his haters.

¹²His armies come on together, they make their road high against me, and put up their tents round mine.

¹³He has taken my brothers far away from me; they have seen my fate and have become strange to me.

¹⁴My relations and my near friends have given me up, and those living in my house have put me out of their minds.

¹⁵I am strange to my women-servants, and seem to them as one from another country.

¹⁶At my cry my servant gives me no answer, and I have to make a prayer to him.

¹⁷My breath is strange to my wife, and I am disgusting to the offspring of my mother's body.

¹⁸Even young children have no respect for me; when I get up their backs are turned on me.

¹⁹All the men of my circle keep away from me; and those dear to me are turned against me.

²⁰My bones are joined to my skin, and I have got away with my flesh in my teeth.

²¹Have pity on me, have pity on me, O my friends! for the hand of God is on me.

²²Why are you cruel to me, like God, for ever saying evil against me?

²³If only my words might be recorded! if they might be put in writing in a book!

²⁴And with an iron pen and lead be cut into the rock for ever!

²⁵But I am certain that he who will take up my cause is living, and that in time to come he will take his place on the dust;

²⁶And ... without my flesh I will see God;

²⁷Whom I will see on my side, and not as one strange to me. My heart is broken with desire.

²⁸If you say, How cruel we will be to him! because the root of sin is clearly in him:

²⁹Be in fear of the sword, for the sword is the punishment for such things, so that you may be certain that there is a judge.