Job 3–41

3After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. ²And Job answered and said:

³Let the day perish wherein I was born,

And the night which said,

There is a man-child conceived.

⁴Let that day be darkness;

Let not God from above seek for it,

Neither let the light shine upon it.

⁵Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for their own;

Let a cloud dwell upon it;

Let all that maketh black the day terrify it.

⁶As for that night, let thick darkness seize upon it:

Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;

Let it not come into the number of the months.

⁷Lo, let that night be barren;

Let no joyful voice come therein.

⁸Let them curse it that curse the day,

Who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

⁹Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark:

Let it look for light, but have none;

Neither let it behold the eyelids of the morning:

¹⁰Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb,

Nor hid trouble from mine eyes.

¹¹Why died I not from the womb?

Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bare me?

¹²Why did the knees receive me?

Or why the breasts, that I should suck?

¹³For now should I have lain down and been quiet;

I should have slept; then had I been at rest,

¹⁴With kings and counsellors of the earth,

Who built up waste places for themselves;

¹⁵Or with princes that had gold,

Who filled their houses with silver

¹⁶Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been,

As infants that never saw light.

¹⁷There the wicked cease from troubling;

And there the weary are at rest.

¹⁸There the prisoners are at ease together;

They hear not the voice of the taskmaster.

¹⁹The small and the great are there:

And the servant is free from his master.

²⁰Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery,

And life unto the bitter in soul;

²¹Who long for death, but it cometh not,

And dig for it more than for hid treasures;

²²Who rejoice exceedingly,

And are glad, when they can find the grave?

²³Why is light given to a man whose way is hid,

And whom God hath hedged in?

²⁴For my sighing cometh before I eat,

And my groanings are poured out like water.

²⁵For the thing which I fear cometh upon me,

And that which I am afraid of cometh unto me.

²⁶I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest;

But trouble cometh.

4Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

²If one assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved?

But who can withhold himself from speaking?

³Behold, thou hast instructed many,

And thou hast strengthened the weak hands.

⁴Thy words have upholden him that was falling,

And thou hast made firm the feeble knees.

⁵But now it is come unto thee, and thou faintest;

It toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.

⁶Is not thy fear of God thy confidence,

And the integrity of thy ways thy hope?

⁷Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent?

Or where were the upright cut off?

⁸According as I have seen, they that plow iniquity,

And sow trouble, reap the same.

⁹By the breath of God they perish,

And by the blast of his anger are they consumed.

¹⁰The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion,

And the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

¹¹The old lion perisheth for lack of prey,

And the whelps of the lioness are scattered abroad.

¹²Now a thing was secretly brought to me,

And mine ear received a whisper thereof.

¹³In thoughts from the visions of the night,

When deep sleep falleth on men,

¹⁴Fear came upon me, and trembling,

Which made all my bones to shake.

¹⁵Then a spirit passed before my face;

The hair of my flesh stood up.

¹⁶It stood still, but I could not discern the appearance thereof;

A form was before mine eyes:

There was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,

¹⁷Shall mortal man be more just than God?

Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?

¹⁸Behold, he putteth no trust in his servants;

And his angels he chargeth with folly:

¹⁹How much more them that dwell in houses of clay,

Whose foundation is in the dust,

Who are crushed before the moth!

²⁰Betwixt morning and evening they are destroyed:

They perish for ever without any regarding it.

²¹Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them?

They die, and that without wisdom.

5Call now; is there any that will answer thee?

And to which of the holy ones wilt thou turn?

²For vexation killeth the foolish man,

And jealousy slayeth the silly one.

³I have seen the foolish taking root:

But suddenly I cursed his habitation.

⁴His children are far from safety,

And they are crushed in the gate,

Neither is there any to deliver them:

⁵Whose harvest the hungry eateth up,

And taketh it even out of the thorns;

And the snare gapeth for their substance.

⁶For affliction cometh not forth from the dust,

Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;

⁷But man is born unto trouble,

As the sparks fly upward.

⁸But as for me, I would seek unto God,

And unto God would I commit my cause;

⁹Who doeth great things and unsearchable,

Marvellous things without number:

¹⁰Who giveth rain upon the earth,

And sendeth waters upon the fields;

¹¹So that he setteth up on high those that are low,

And those that mourn are exalted to safety.

¹²He frustrateth the devices of the crafty,

So that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.

¹³He taketh the wise in their own craftiness;

And the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong.

¹⁴They meet with darkness in the day-time,

And grope at noonday as in the night.

¹⁵But he saveth from the sword of their mouth,

Even the needy from the hand of the mighty.

¹⁶So the poor hath hope,

And iniquity stoppeth her mouth.

¹⁷Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth:

Therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty.

¹⁸For he maketh sore, and bindeth up;

He woundeth, and his hands make whole.

¹⁹He will deliver thee in six troubles;

Yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.

²⁰In famine he will redeem thee from death;

And in war from the power of the sword.

²¹Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue;

Neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.

²²At destruction and dearth thou shalt laugh;

Neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.

²³For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field;

And the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.

²⁴And thou shalt know that thy tent is in peace;

And thou shalt visit thy fold, and shalt miss nothing.

²⁵Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great,

And thine offspring as the grass of the earth.

²⁶Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age,

Like as a shock of grain cometh in in its season.

²⁷Lo this, we have searched it, so it is;

Hear it, and know thou it for thy good.

6Then Job answered and said,

²Oh that my vexation were but weighed,

And all my calamity laid in the balances!

³For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas:

Therefore have my words been rash.

⁴For the arrows of the Almighty are within me,

The poison whereof my spirit drinketh up:

The terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.

⁵Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass?

Or loweth the ox over his fodder?

⁶Can that which hath no savor be eaten without salt?

Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

⁷My soul refuseth to touch them;

They are as loathsome food to me.

⁸Oh that I might have my request;

And that God would grant me the thing that I long for!

⁹Even that it would please God to crush me;

That he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!

¹⁰And be it still my consolation,

Yea, let me exult in pain that spareth not,

That I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

¹¹What is my strength, that I should wait?

And what is mine end, that I should be patient?

¹²Is my strength the strength of stones?

Or is my flesh of brass?

¹³Is it not that I have no help in me,

And that wisdom is driven quite from me?

¹⁴To him that is ready to faint kindness should be showed from his friend;

Even to him that forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.

¹⁵My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook,

As the channel of brooks that pass away;

¹⁶Which are black by reason of the ice,

And wherein the snow hideth itself:

¹⁷What time they wax warm, they vanish;

When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.

¹⁸The caravans that travel by the way of them turn aside;

They go up into the waste, and perish.

¹⁹The caravans of Tema looked,

The companies of Sheba waited for them.

²⁰They were put to shame because they had hoped;

They came thither, and were confounded.

²¹For now ye are nothing;

Ye see a terror, and are afraid.

²²Did I say, Give unto me?

Or, Offer a present for me of your substance?

²³Or, Deliver me from the adversary’s hand?

Or, Redeem me from the hand of the oppressors?

²⁴Teach me, and I will hold my peace;

And cause me to understand wherein I have erred.

²⁵How forcible are words of uprightness!

But your reproof, what doth it reprove?

²⁶Do ye think to reprove words,

Seeing that the speeches of one that is desperate are as wind?

²⁷Yea, ye would cast lots upon the fatherless,

And make merchandise of your friend.

²⁸Now therefore be pleased to look upon me;

For surely I shall not lie to your face.

²⁹Return, I pray you, let there be no injustice;

Yea, return again, my cause is righteous.

³⁰Is there injustice on my tongue?

Cannot my taste discern mischievous things?

7Is there not a warfare to man upon earth?

And are not his days like the days of a hireling?

²As a servant that earnestly desireth the shadow,

And as a hireling that looketh for his wages:

³So am I made to possess months of misery,

And wearisome nights are appointed to me.

⁴When I lie down, I say,

When shall I arise, and the night be gone?

And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.

⁵My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust;

My skin closeth up, and breaketh out afresh.

⁶My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,

And are spent without hope.

⁷Oh remember that my life is a breath:

Mine eye shall no more see good.

⁸The eye of him that seeth me shall behold me no more;

Thine eyes shall be upon me, but I shall not be.

⁹As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away,

So he that goeth down to Sheol shall come up no more.

¹⁰He…