Job 19:1–21:34

Then Job answered, and said:

2 How long do you afflict my soul, and break me in pieces with words?

3 Behold, these ten times you confound me, and are not ashamed to oppress me.

4 For if I have been ignorant, my ignorance shall be with me.

5 But you set yourselves up against me, and reprove me with my reproaches.

6 At least now understand, that God hath not afflicted me with an equal judgment, and compassed me with his scourges.

7 Behold I shall cry suffering violence, and no one will hear: I shall cry aloud, and there is none to judge.

8 He hath hedged in my path round about, and I cannot pass, and in my way he hath set darkness.

9 He hath stripped me of my glory, and hath taken the crown from my head.

10 He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am lost, and he hath taken away my hope, as from a tree that is plucked up.

11 His wrath is kindled against me, and he hath counted me as his enemy.

12 His troops have come together, and have made themselves a way by me, and have besieged my tabernacle round about.

13 He hath put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintance like strangers have departed from me.

14 My kinsmen have forsaken me, and they that knew me, have forgotten me.

15 They that dwell in my house, and my maidservants have counted me as a stranger, and I have been like an alien in their eyes.

16 I called my servant, and he gave me no answer, I entreated him with my own mouth.

17 My wife hath abhorred my breath, and I entreated the children of my womb.

18 Even fools despised me, and when I was gone from them, they spoke against me.

19 They that were sometime my counsellors, have abhorred me: and he whom I loved most is turned against me.

20 The flesh being consumed, my bone hath cleaved to my skin, and nothing but lips are left about my teeth.

21 Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you my friends, because the hand of the Lord hath touched me.

22 Why do you persecute me as God, and glut yourselves with my flesh?

23 Who will grant me that my words may be written? who will grant me that they may be marked down in a book?

24 With an iron pen and in a plate of lead, or else be graven with an instrument in flint stone?

25 For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth.

26 And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see my God.

27 Whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another: this my hope is laid up in my bosom.

28 Why then do you say now: Let us persecute him, and let us find occasion of word against him?

29 Flee then from the face of the sword, for the sword is the revenger of iniquities: and know ye that there is a judgment.

Chapter 20

Then Sophar the Naamathite answered, and said:

2 Therefore various thoughts succeed one another in me, and my mind is hurried away to different things.

3 The doctrine with which thou reprovest me, I will hear, and the spirit of my understanding shall answer for me.

4 This I know from the beginning, since man was placed upon the earth,

5 That the praise of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment.

6 If his pride mount up even to heaven, and his head touch the clouds:

7 In the end he shall be destroyed like a dunghill, and they that had seen him, shall say: Where is he?

8 As a dream that fleeth away he shall not be found, he shall pass as a vision of the night:

9 The eyes that had seen him, shall see him no more, neither shall his place any more behold him.

10 His children shall be oppressed with want, and his hands shall render to him his sorrow.

11 His bones shall be filled with the vices of his youth, and they shall sleep with him in the dust.

12 For when evil shall be sweet in his mouth, he will hide it under his tongue.

13 He will spare it, and not leave it, and will hide it in his throat.

14 His bread in his belly shall be turned into the gall of asps within him,

15 The riches which he hath swallowed, he shall vomit up, and God shall draw them out of his belly.

16 He shall suck the head of asps, and the viper’s tongue shall kill him.

17 Let him not see the streams of the river, the brooks of honey and of butter.

18 He shall be punished for all that he did, and yet shall not be consumed: according to the multitude of his devices so also shall he suffer.

19 Because he broke in and stripped the poor: he hath violently taken away a house which he did not build.

20 And yet his belly was not filled: and when he hath the things he coveted, he shall not be able to possess them.

21 There was nothing left of his meat, and therefore nothing shall continue of his goods:

22 When he shall be filled, he shall be straitened, he shall burn, and every sorrow shall fall upon him.

23 May his belly be filled, that God may send forth the wrath of his indignation upon him, and rain down his war upon him.

24 He shall flee from weapons of iron, and shall fall upon a bow of brass.

25 The sword is drawn out, and cometh forth from its scabbard, and glittereth in his bitterness: the terrible ones shall go and come upon him.

26 All darkness is hid in his secret places: a fire that is not kindled shall devour him, he shall be afflicted when left in his tabernacle.

27 The heavens shall reveal his iniquity, and the earth shall rise up against him.

28 The offspring of his house shall be exposed, he shall be pulled down in the day of God’s wrath.

29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the inheritance of his doings from the Lord.

Chapter 21

Then Job answered, and said:

2 Hear, I beseech you, my words, and do penance.

3 Suffer me, and I will speak, and after, if you please, laugh at my words.

4 Is my debate against man, that I should not have just reason to be troubled?

5 Hearken to me and be astonished, and lay your finger on your mouth.

6 As for me, when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.

7 Why then do the wicked live, are they advanced, and strengthened with riches?

8 Their seed continueth before them, a multitude of kinsmen, and of children’s children in their sight.

9 Their houses are secure and peaceable, and the rod of God is not upon them.

10 Their cattle have conceived, and failed not: their cow has calved, and is not deprived of her fruit.

11 Their little ones go out like a flock, and their children dance and play.

12 They take the timbrel, and the harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.

13 They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell.

14 Who have said to God: Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.

15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what doth it profit us if we pray to him?

16 Yet because their good things are not in their hand, may the counsel of the wicked be far from me.

17 How often shall the lamp of the wicked be put out, and a deluge come upon them, and he shall distribute the sorrows of his wrath?

18 They shall be as chaff before the face of the wind, and as ashes which the whirlwind scattereth.

19 God shall lay up the sorrow of the father for his children: and when he shall repay, then shall he know.

20 His eyes shall see his own destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

21 For what is it to him what befalleth his house after him: and if the number of his months be diminished by one half?

22 Shall any one teach God knowledge, who judgeth those that are high?

23 One man dieth strong, and hale, rich and happy.

24 His bowels are full of fat, and his bones are moistened with marrow.

25 But another dieth in bitterness of soul without any riches:

26 And yet they shall sleep together in the dust, and worms shall cover them.

27 Surely I know your thoughts, and your unjust judgments against me.

28 For you say: Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?

29 Ask any one of them that go by the way, and you shall perceive that he knoweth these same things.

30 Because the wicked man is reserved to the day of destruction, and he shall be brought to the day of wrath.

31 Who shall reprove his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?

32 He shall be brought to the graves, and shall watch in the heap of the dead.

33 He hath been acceptable to the gravel of Cocytus, and he shall draw every man after him, and there are innumerable before him.

34 How then do ye comfort me in vain, whereas your answer is shewn to be repugnant to truth?