Job 7-8

Job 7

¹Has not man his ordered time of trouble on the earth? and are not his days like the days of a servant working for payment?

²As a servant desiring the shades of evening, and a workman looking for his payment:

³So I have for my heritage months of pain to no purpose, and nights of weariness are given to me.

⁴When I go to my bed, I say, When will it be time to get up? but the night is long, and I am turning from side to side till morning light.

⁵My flesh is covered with worms and dust; my skin gets hard and then is cracked again.

⁶My days go quicker than the cloth-worker's thread, and come to an end without hope.

⁷O, keep in mind that my life is wind: my eye will never again see good.

⁸The eye of him who sees me will see me no longer: your eyes will be looking for me, but I will be gone.

⁹A cloud comes to an end and is gone; so he who goes down into the underworld comes not up again.

¹⁰He will not come back to his house, and his place will have no more knowledge of him.

¹¹So I will not keep my mouth shut; I will let the words come from it in the pain of my spirit, my soul will make a bitter outcry.

¹²Am I a sea, or a sea-beast, that you put a watch over me?

¹³When I say, In my bed I will have comfort, there I will get rest from my disease;

¹⁴Then you send dreams to me, and visions of fear;

¹⁵So that a hard death seems better to my soul than my pains.

¹⁶I have no desire for life, I would not be living for ever! Keep away from me, for my days are as a breath.

¹⁷What is man, that you have made him great, and that your attention is fixed on him,

¹⁸And that your hand is on him every morning, and that you are testing him every minute?

¹⁹How long will it be before your eyes are turned away from me, so that I may have a minute's breathing-space?

²⁰If I have done wrong, what have I done to you, O keeper of men? why have you made me a mark for your blows, so that I am a weariness to myself?

²¹And why do you not take away my sin, and let my wrongdoing be ended? for now I go down to the dust, and you will be searching for me with care, but I will be gone.

Job 8

¹Then Bildad the Shuhite made answer and said,

²How long will you say these things, and how long will the words of your mouth be like a strong wind?

³Does God give wrong decisions? or is the Ruler of all not upright in his judging?

⁴If your children have done evil against him, then their punishment is from his hand.

⁵If you will make search for God with care, and put your request before the Ruler of all;

⁶If you are clean and upright; then he will certainly be moved to take up your cause, and will make clear your righteousness by building up your house again.

⁷And though your start was small, your end will be very great.

⁸Put the question now to the past generations, and give attention to what has been searched out by their fathers:

⁹(For we are but of yesterday, and have no knowledge, because our days on earth are gone like a shade:)

¹⁰Will they not give you teaching, and say words of wisdom to you?

¹¹Will the river-plant come up in its pride without wet earth? will the grass get tall without water?

¹²When it is still green, without being cut down, it becomes dry and dead before any other plant.

¹³So is the end of all who do not keep God in mind; and the hope of the evil-doer comes to nothing:

¹⁴Whose support is cut off, and whose hope is no stronger than a spider's thread.

¹⁵He is looking to his family for support, but it is not there; he puts his hope in it, but it comes to nothing.

¹⁶He is full of strength before the sun, and his branches go out over his garden.

¹⁷His roots are twisted round the stones, forcing their way in between them.

¹⁸If he is taken away from his place, then it will say, I have not seen you.

¹⁹Such is the joy of his way, and out of the dust another comes up to take his place.

²⁰Truly, God will not give up him who is without sin, and will not take evil-doers by the hand.

²¹The time will come when your mouth will be full of laughing, and cries of joy will come from your lips.

²²Your haters will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the sinner will not be seen again.