Job 13-15

Job 13

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

²What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.

³Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.

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

⁵Oh that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.

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

⁷Will ye speak unrighteously for God, and talk deceitfully for him?

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

⁹Is it good that he should search you out? or as one deceiveth a man, will ye deceive him?

¹⁰He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly respect persons.

¹¹Shall not his excellency make you afraid, and his dread fall upon you?

¹²Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes, your defences are defences of clay.

¹³Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what wilt.

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

¹⁵Though he slay me, yet will I wait for him: nevertheless I will maintain my ways before him.

¹⁶This also shall be my salvation; for a godless man shall not come before him.

¹⁷Hear diligently my speech, and let my declaration be in your ears.

¹⁸Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I am righteous.

¹⁹Who is he that will contend with me? for now shall I hold my peace and give up the ghost.

²⁰Only do not two things unto me, then will I not hide myself from thy face:

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

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

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

²⁴Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?

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

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

²⁷Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and markest all my paths; thou drawest thee a line about the soles of my feet:

²⁸Though I am like a rotten thing that consumeth, like a garment that is moth-eaten.

Job 14

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

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

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

⁴Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.

⁵Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with thee, and thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;

⁶Look away from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.

⁷For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

⁸Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;

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

¹⁰But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?

¹¹As the waters fail from the sea, and the river decayeth and drieth up;

¹²So man lieth down and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.

¹³Oh that thou wouldest hide me in Sheol, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

¹⁴If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my warfare would I wait, till my release should come.

¹⁵Thou shouldest call, and I would answer thee: thou wouldest have a desire to the work of thine hands.

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

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

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

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

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

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

²²But his flesh upon him hath pain, and his soul within him mourneth.

Job 15

¹Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

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

³Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

⁴Yea, thou doest away with fear, and restrainest devotion before God.

⁵For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.

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

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

⁸Hast thou heard the secret counsel of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?

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

¹⁰With us are both the grayheaded and the very aged men, much elder than thy father.

¹¹Are the consolations of God too small for thee, and the word that dealeth gently with thee?

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

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

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

¹⁵Behold, he putteth no trust in his holy ones; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

¹⁶How much less one that is abominable and corrupt, a man that drinketh iniquity like water!

¹⁷I will shew thee, hear thou me; and that which I have seen I will declare:

¹⁸(Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it;

¹⁹Unto whom alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them:)

²⁰The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, even the number of years that are laid up for the oppressor.

²¹A sound of terrors is in his ears; in prosperity the spoiler shall come upon him:

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

²³He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? 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 to the battle:

²⁵Because he hath stretched out his hand against God, and behaveth himself proudly against the Almighty;

²⁶He runneth upon him with a stiff neck, with the thick bosses of his bucklers:

²⁷Because he hath covered his face with his fatness, and made collops of fat on his flanks;

²⁸And he hath dwelt in desolate cities, in houses which no man inhabited, which were ready to become heaps.

²⁹He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall their produce bend to 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, deceiving himself: for vanity shall be his recompence.

³²It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.

³³He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.

³⁴For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery.

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