Job 13-15

Job 13

¹Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it.

²What ye know, I know also: I am not inferior to you.

³But I will speak to the Almighty, and will find pleasure in reasoning with God;

⁴For ye indeed are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.

⁵Oh that ye would be altogether silent! and it would be your wisdom.

⁶Hear now my defence, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.

⁷Will ye speak unrighteously for God? and for him speak deceit?

⁸Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?

⁹Will it be well if he should search you out? or as one mocketh at a man, will ye mock at him?

¹⁰He will certainly reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons.

¹¹Shall not his excellency terrify you? and his dread fall upon you?

¹²Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, your bulwarks are bulwarks of mire.

¹³Hold your peace from me, and I will speak, and let come on me what will!

¹⁴Wherefore should I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand?

¹⁵Behold, if he slay me, yet would I trust in him; but I will defend mine own ways before him.

¹⁶This also shall be my salvation, that a profane man shall not come before his face.

¹⁷Hear attentively my speech and my declaration with your ears.

¹⁸Behold now, I have ordered the cause; I know that I shall be justified.

¹⁹Who is he that contendeth with me? For if I were silent now, I should expire.

²⁰Only do not two things unto me; then will I not hide myself from thee.

²¹Withdraw thy hand far from me; and let not thy terror make me afraid:

²²Then call, and I will answer; or I will speak, and answer thou me.

²³How many are mine iniquities and sins? Make me to know my transgression and my sin.

²⁴Wherefore dost thou hide thy face, and countest me for thine enemy?

²⁵Wilt thou terrify a driven leaf? and wilt thou pursue dry stubble?

²⁶For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth;

²⁷And thou puttest my feet in the stocks, and markest all my paths; thou settest a bound about the soles of my feet; --

²⁸One who, as a rotten thing consumeth, as a garment that the moth eateth.

Job 14

¹Man, born of woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.

²He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; and he fleeth as a shadow, and continueth not.

³Yet dost thou open thine eyes upon such a one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?

⁴Who can bring a clean man out of the unclean? Not one!

⁵If his days are determined, if the number of his months is with thee, and thou hast appointed his bounds which he must not pass,

⁶Look away from him; and let him rest, till he accomplish, as a hireling, his day.

⁷For there is hope for a tree: if it be cut down, it will sprout again, and its tender branch will not cease;

⁸Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stock die in the ground,

⁹Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and put forth boughs like a young plant.

¹⁰But a man dieth, and is prostrate; yea, man expireth, and where is he?

¹¹The waters recede from the lake, and the river wasteth and drieth up:

¹²So man lieth down, and riseth not again; till the heavens be no more, they do not awake, nor are raised out of their sleep.

¹³Oh that thou wouldest hide me in Sheol, that thou wouldest keep me secret until thine anger be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me, --

¹⁴(If a man die, shall he live again?) all the days of my time of toil would I wait, till my change should come:

¹⁵Thou wouldest call, and I would answer thee; thou wouldest have a desire after the work of thy hands.

¹⁶For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?

¹⁷My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou heapest up mine iniquity.

¹⁸And indeed a mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of its place;

¹⁹The waters wear the stones, the floods thereof wash away the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.

²⁰Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth away; thou changest his countenance, and dismissest him.

²¹His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, and he perceiveth it not.

²²But his flesh hath pain for himself alone, and his soul mourneth for himself.

Job 15

¹And Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

²Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind,

³Reasoning with unprofitable talk, and with speeches which do no good?

⁴Yea, thou makest piety of none effect, and restrainest meditation before God.

⁵For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou hast chosen the tongue of the crafty.

⁶Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; and thy lips testify against thee.

⁷Art thou the first man that was born? and wast thou brought forth before the hills?

⁸Hast thou listened in the secret council of +God? And hast thou absorbed wisdom for thyself?

⁹What knowest thou that we know not? what understandest thou which is not in us?

¹⁰Both the greyheaded and the aged are with us, older than thy father.

¹¹Are the consolations of God too small for thee? and the word gently spoken to thee?

¹²Why doth thy heart carry thee away? and why do thine eyes wink?

¹³That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest words go out of thy mouth?

¹⁴What is man, that he should be pure? and he that is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

¹⁵Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight:

¹⁶How much less the abominable and corrupt, -- man, that drinketh unrighteousness like water!

¹⁷I will shew thee, listen to me; and what I have seen I will declare;

¹⁸Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hidden;

¹⁹Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.

²⁰All his days the wicked man is tormented, and numbered years are allotted to the violent.

²¹The sound of terrors is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer cometh upon him.

²²He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is singled out for the sword.

²³He wandereth abroad for bread, -- where may it be? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

²⁴Distress and anguish make him afraid; they prevail against him, as a king ready for the battle.

²⁵For he hath stretched out his hand against God, and strengthened himself against the Almighty:

²⁶He runneth against him, with outstretched neck, with the thick bosses of his bucklers;

²⁷For he hath covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat upon his flanks.

²⁸And he dwelleth in desolate cities, in houses that no man inhabiteth, which are destined to become heaps.

²⁹He shall not become rich, neither shall his substance continue, and their possessions shall not extend upon the earth.

³⁰He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches; and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.

³¹Let him not trust in vanity: he is deceived, for vanity shall be his recompense;

³²It shall be complete before his day, and his branch shall not be green.

³³He shall shake off his unripe grapes as a vine, and shall cast his flower as an olive.

³⁴For the family of the ungodly shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

³⁵They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, and their belly prepareth deceit.