Job 3–41

3After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. ²And Job ^†spake, and said,

^3aLet the day perish wherein I was born,

And the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.

⁴Let that day be darkness;

Let not God regard it from above,

Neither let the light shine upon it.

⁵Let darkness and ^bthe shadow of death ^c||stain it;

Let a cloud dwell upon it;

^||Let the blackness of the day terrify it.

⁶As for that night, let darkness seize upon it;

^||Let it not be joined unto the days of the year,

Let it not come into the number of the months.

⁷Lo, let that night be ^dsolitary,

Let no ^ejoyful voice come therein.

⁸Let them curse it that curse the day,

Who are ready to raise up ^||their mourning.

⁹Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark;

Let it look for light, but have none;

Neither let it see ^†the dawning of the day:

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

Nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

^11fWhy died I not from the womb?

Why did I ^gnot give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

¹²Why did ^hthe knees prevent me?

Or why the breasts that I should suck?

¹³For now should I have lain still and been quiet,

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

¹⁴With kings and counsellers of the earth,

Which built desolate places for themselves;

¹⁵Or with princes that had gold,

Who filled their houses with silver:

¹⁶Or as an hidden ⁱuntimely birth I had not been;

As infants which never saw light.

¹⁷There the wicked cease from troubling;

And there the ^†weary be at rest.

¹⁸There the prisoners ^jrest together;

^kThey hear not the voice of the oppressor.

¹⁹The small and 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 ^lbitter in soul;

²¹Which ^†mlong for death, but it cometh not;

And dig for it more than for ⁿhid treasures;

²²Which rejoice ^oexceedingly,

And are glad, when they can find the grave?

^23pWhy is light given to a man ^qwhose way is hid,

And ^rwhom God hath hedged in?

²⁴For my sighing cometh ^†before I eat,

And my roarings are poured out like the waters.

²⁵For ^†the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me,

And that which I was afraid of is come unto me.

²⁶I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet;

Yet trouble came.

4Then ^aEliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

²If we assay ^†to commune with thee, wilt thou ^bbe grieved?

But ^†who can withhold himself from speaking?

³Behold, thou hast instructed many,

And thou ^chast strengthened the weak hands.

⁴Thy words have upholden ^chim that was falling,

And thou ^dhast strengthened ^†the feeble knees.

⁵But now it is come upon thee, and thou ^bfaintest;

It toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.

⁶Is not this ^ethy fear, thy ^fconfidence,

Thy hope, and ^ethe uprightness of thy ways?

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

Or where were the righteous cut off?

⁸Even as I have seen, ^gthey that plow iniquity,

And sow ^hwickedness, reap the same.

⁹By the blast of God they perish,

And ^||by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.

¹⁰The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the ^hhfierce lion,

And the teeth of the ⁱyoung lions, are broken.

¹¹The old lion ^jperisheth for lack of prey,

And the stout lion’s whelps ^kare scattered abroad.

¹²Now a thing was ^†secretly brought to me,

And mine ear received ^la little thereof.

¹³In ^mthoughts from the visions of the night,

When ⁿdeep sleep falleth on men,

¹⁴Fear ^†came upon me, and ^otrembling,

Which made ^†all my bones to shake.

¹⁵Then ^pa spirit passed before my face;

The hair of my flesh ^qstood up:

¹⁶It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof:

^rAn image was before mine eyes,

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

^17sShall mortal man be more just than God?

Shall a man be more pure than his maker?

¹⁸Behold, he ^tput no trust in his servants;

^||And his angels ^uhe charged with folly:

^19xHow much less in them that dwell in ^yhouses of clay,

Whose foundation is in ^zthe dust,

Which are crushed before ^athe moth?

^20bThey are ^†destroyed from morning to evening:

They perish for ever without any ^cregarding it.

^21dDoth not their excellency which is in them go away?

^eThey die, even without wisdom.

5Call now, if there be any that will answer thee;

And to which of the ^asaints wilt thou ^||turn?

²For ^bwrath killeth the foolish man,

And ^||envy slayeth the silly one.

^3cI have seen the foolish taking root:

But suddenly I cursed his habitation.

^4dHis children are far from safety,

And they are crushed ^ein the gate, ^fneither is there any to deliver them.

⁵Whose harvest the hungry eateth up,

And taketh it even out of ^gthe thorns,

And the robber swalloweth up their ^hsubstance.

⁶Although ^||affliction cometh not forth of the dust,

Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;

⁷Yet man is ⁱborn unto ^||trouble,

As ^†the sparks fly upward.

⁸I would seek unto God,

And unto God would I commit my cause:

^9jWhich doeth great things ^†and unsearchable;

Marvellous things ^†without number:

^10kWho giveth rain upon the earth,

And sendeth waters upon the ^†fields:

^11lTo set up on high those that be low;

That those which ^mmourn may be exalted to safety.

¹²He ⁿdisappointeth the devices of the crafty,

So that their hands ^||cannot perform their enterprise.

^13oHe taketh the wise in their own craftiness:

And the counsel of the ^pfroward is carried headlong.

¹⁴They ^||meet with darkness in the daytime,

And ^qgrope in the noonday as in the night.

¹⁵But ^rhe saveth the poor from the sword,

From their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty.

¹⁶So the poor hath hope,

And ^siniquity stoppeth her mouth.

¹⁷Behold, ^thappy is the man whom God correcteth:

Therefore ^udespise not thou the chastening of ^xthe Almighty:

¹⁸For he maketh sore, and bindeth up:

^yHe woundeth, and his hands make whole.

^19zHe shall deliver thee in ^asix troubles:

Yea, in ^aseven ^bthere shall no evil touch thee.

^20cIn famine he shall redeem thee from death:

And in war ^†from the power of the sword.

^21dThou shalt be hid ^||from the scourge of the tongue:

Neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.

²²At destruction and ^efamine thou shalt ^flaugh:

^gNeither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.

²³For thou shalt be ^hin league with the stones of the field:

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

²⁴And thou shalt know ^||that thy tabernacle shall be in peace;

And thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not ^||sin.

²⁵Thou shalt know also that ⁱthy seed shall be ^||great,

And thine ^joffspring ^kas the grass of the earth.

²⁶Thou shalt come to thy grave in ^la full age,

Like as ^ma shock of corn ^†cometh in in his season.

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

Hear it, and know thou it ^†for thy good.

6But Job answered and said,

²Oh that my ^agrief were throughly weighed,

And my ^aacalamity ^†laid in the balances together!

³For now it would be heavier than ^bthe sand of the sea:

Therefore ^||my words ^care swallowed up.

⁴For ^dthe arrows of the Almighty are within me,

The poison whereof drinketh up my spirit:

^eThe terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.

⁵Doth the ^fwild ass bray ^†when he hath grass?

Or loweth the ox over his ^gfodder?

⁶Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt?

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

⁷The things that my soul refused to touch

Are as my sorrowful meat.

⁸Oh that I might have ^hmy request;

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

⁹Even that ⁱit would please God to ^jdestroy me;

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

¹⁰Then should I yet have comfort;

Yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: ^llet him not spare;

For I have not ^mconcealed ^mmthe words of ⁿthe Holy One.

¹¹What is my strength, that I should hope?

And what is mine end, that I should ^oprolong my life?

¹²Is my strength the strength of stones?

Or is my flesh ^†of brass?

¹³Is not my help in me?

And is ^pwisdom driven quite from me?

^14†To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed ^qfrom his friend;

But he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.

¹⁵My brethren ^rhave dealt deceitfully as a brook,

And ^sas the stream of brooks they pass away;

¹⁶Which are blackish by reason of the ice,

And wherein the snow is hid:

¹⁷What time they wax warm, ^†they vanish:

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

¹⁸The paths of their way ^tare turned aside;

They go to ^unothing, and perish.

¹⁹The troops of ^xTema looked,

The companies of ^ySheba waited for them.

²⁰They were ^zconfounded because they had hoped;

They came thither, and were ^zashamed.

^21||For now ye are ^†nothing;

Ye see my casting down, and are afraid.

²²Did I say, Bring unto me?

Or, Give a reward for me of your ^asubstance?

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

Or, Redeem me from the hand of the ^bmighty?

²⁴Teach me, and I will hold my tongue:

And cause me to understand wherein I have erred.

²⁵How ^cforcible are right words!

But what doth your arguing reprove?

²⁶Do ye imagine to reprove words,

And the speeches of one that is ^ddesperate, which are as wind?

²⁷Yea, ^†ye overwhelm the fatherless,

And ye ^edig a pit for your friend.

²⁸Now therefore be content, ^flook upon me;

For it is ^†evident unto you if I lie.

^29gReturn, I pray you, let it not be iniquity;

Yea, return again, my righteousness is ^||in it.

³⁰Is there iniquity in my tongue?

Cannot ^†my taste discern ^hperverse things?

7Is there not ^||an appointed time to man upon earth?

Are not his days also ^alike the days of an hireling?

²As a servant ^†earnestly desireth ^bthe shadow,

And as an hireling looketh for ^cthe reward of his work:

³So am I made to possess ^dmonths of ^evanity,

And wearisome nights are appointed to me.

^4eeWhen 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 ^fworms and clods of dust;

My skin is broken, and ^gbecome loathsome.

⁶My days are swifter than ^ha weaver’s shuttle,

And are spent without hope.

⁷O remember that my life is ⁱwind:

Mine eye ^†shall no more ^||see good.

^8kThe eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more:

Thine eyes are upon me, and ^||I am not.

⁹As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away:

So he that ^lgoeth down to the grave shall come…