Job 19:1–21:34

Then Job answered and said,

2How long will ye vex my soul,

And break me in pieces with words?

3These ten times have ye reproached me:

Ye are not ashamed that ye deal hardly with me.

4And be it indeed that I have erred,

Mine error remaineth with myself.

5If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me,

And plead against me my reproach;

6Know now that God hath subverted me in my cause,

And hath compassed me with his net.

7Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard:

I cry for help, but there is no justice.

8He hath walled up my way that I cannot pass,

And hath set darkness in my paths.

9He hath stripped me of my glory,

And taken the crown from my head.

10He hath broken me down on every side, and I am gone;

And my hope hath he plucked up like a tree.

11He hath also kindled his wrath against me,

And he counteth me unto him as one of his adversaries.

12His troops come on together,

And cast up their way against me,

And encamp round about my tent.

13He hath put my brethren far from me,

And mine acquaintance are wholly estranged from me.

14My kinsfolk have failed,

And my familiar friends have forgotten me.

15They that dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger;

I am an alien in their sight.

16I call unto my servant, and he giveth me no answer,

Though I entreat him with my mouth.

17My breath is strange to my wife,

And my supplication to the children of mine own mother.

18Even young children despise me;

If I arise, they speak against me.

19All my familiar friends abhor me,

And they whom I loved are turned against me.

20My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh,

And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

21Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends;

For the hand of God hath touched me.

22Why do ye persecute me as God,

And are not satisfied with my flesh?

23Oh that my words were now written!

Oh that they were inscribed in a book!

24That with an iron pen and lead

They were graven in the rock for ever!

25But as for me I know that my Redeemer liveth,

And at last he will stand up upon the earth:

26And after my skin, even this body, is destroyed,

Then without my flesh shall I see God;

27Whom I, even I, shall see, on my side,

And mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger.

My heart is consumed within me.

28If ye say, How we will persecute him!

And that the root of the matter is found in me;

29Be ye afraid of the sword:

For wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword,

That ye may know there is a judgment.

20 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,

2Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me,

Even by reason of my haste that is in me.

3I have heard the reproof which putteth me to shame;

And the spirit of my understanding answereth me.

4Knowest thou not this of old time,

Since man was placed upon earth,

5That the triumphing of the wicked is short,

And the joy of the godless but for a moment?

6Though his height mount up to the heavens,

And his head reach unto the clouds;

7Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung:

They that have seen him shall say, Where is he?

8He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found:

Yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.

9The eye which saw him shall see him no more;

Neither shall his place any more behold him.

10His children shall seek the favor of the poor,

And his hands shall give back his wealth.

11His bones are full of his youth,

But it shall lie down with him in the dust.

12Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth,

Though he hide it under his tongue,

13Though he spare it, and will not let it go,

But keep it still within his mouth;

14Yet his food in his bowels is turned,

It is the gall of asps within him.

15He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again;

God will cast them out of his belly.

16He shall suck the poison of asps:

The viper’s tongue shall slay him.

17He shall not look upon the rivers,

The flowing streams of honey and butter.

18That which he labored for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down;

According to the substance that he hath gotten, he shall not rejoice.

19For he hath oppressed and forsaken the poor;

He hath violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.

20Because he knew no quietness within him,

He shall not save aught of that wherein he delighteth.

21There was nothing left that he devoured not;

Therefore his prosperity shall not endure.

22In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits:

The hand of every one that is in misery shall come upon him.

23When he is about to fill his belly,

God will cast the fierceness of his wrath upon him,

And will rain it upon him while he is eating.

24He shall flee from the iron weapon,

And the bow of brass shall strike him through.

25He draweth it forth, and it cometh out of his body;

Yea, the glittering point cometh out of his gall:

Terrors are upon him.

26All darkness is laid up for his treasures:

A fire not blown by man shall devour him;

It shall consume that which is left in his tent.

27The heavens shall reveal his iniquity,

And the earth shall rise up against him.

28The increase of his house shall depart;

His goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.

29This is the portion of a wicked man from God,

And the heritage appointed unto him by God.

21 Then Job answered and said,

2Hear diligently my speech;

And let this be your consolations.

3Suffer me, and I also will speak;

And after that I have spoken, mock on.

4As for me, is my complaint to man?

And why should I not be impatient?

5Mark me, and be astonished,

And lay your hand upon your mouth.

6Even when I remember I am troubled,

And horror taketh hold on my flesh.

7Wherefore do the wicked live,

Become old, yea, wax mighty in power?

8Their seed is established with them in their sight,

And their offspring before their eyes.

9Their houses are safe from fear,

Neither is the rod of God upon them.

10Their bull gendereth, and faileth not;

Their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.

11They send forth their little ones like a flock,

And their children dance.

12They sing to the timbrel and harp,

And rejoice at the sound of the pipe.

13They spend their days in prosperity,

And in a moment they go down to Sheol.

14And they say unto God, Depart from us;

For we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.

15What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?

And what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?

16Lo, their prosperity is not in their hand:

The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

17How oft is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?

That their calamity cometh upon them?

That God distributeth sorrows in his anger?

18That they are as stubble before the wind,

And as chaff that the storm carrieth away?

19Ye say, God layeth up his iniquity for his children.

Let him recompense it unto himself, that he may know it:

20Let his own eyes see his destruction,

And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

21For what careth he for his house after him,

When the number of his months is cut off?

22Shall any teach God knowledge,

Seeing he judgeth those that are high?

23One dieth in his full strength,

Being wholly at ease and quiet:

24His pails are full of milk,

And the marrow of his bones is moistened.

25And another dieth in bitterness of soul,

And never tasteth of good.

26They lie down alike in the dust,

And the worm covereth them.

27Behold, I know your thoughts,

And the devices wherewith ye would wrong me.

28For ye say, Where is the house of the prince?

And where is the tent wherein the wicked dwelt?

29Have ye not asked wayfaring men?

And do ye not know their evidences,

30That the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity?

That they are led forth to the day of wrath?

31Who shall declare his way to his face?

And who shall repay him what he hath done?

32Yet shall he be borne to the grave,

And men shall keep watch over the tomb.

33The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him,

And all men shall draw after him,

As there were innumerable before him.

34How then comfort ye me in vain,

Seeing in your answers there remaineth only falsehood?