Job 3:1–31:40

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

3  aLet the day perish wherein I was born,

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

4  Let that day be darkness;

Let not God regard it from above,

Neither let the light shine upon it.

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

Let a cloud dwell upon it;

||Let the blackness of the day terrify it.

6  As 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.

7  Lo, let that night be dsolitary,

Let no ejoyful voice come therein.

8  Let them curse it that curse the day,

Who are ready to raise up ||their mourning.

9  Let 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:

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

Nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

11  fWhy died I not from the womb?

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

12  Why did hthe knees prevent me?

Or why the breasts that I should suck?

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

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

14  With kings and counsellers of the earth,

Which built desolate places for themselves;

15  Or with princes that had gold,

Who filled their houses with silver:

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

As infants which never saw light.

17  There the wicked cease from troubling;

And there the †weary be at rest.

18  There the prisoners jrest together;

kThey hear not the voice of the oppressor.

19  The small and great are there;

And the servant is free from his master.

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

And life unto the lbitter in soul;

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

And dig for it more than for nhid treasures;

22  Which rejoice oexceedingly,

And are glad, when they can find the grave?

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

And rwhom God hath hedged in?

24  For my sighing cometh †before I eat,

And my roarings are poured out like the waters.

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

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

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

Yet trouble came.

4 Then aEliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

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

But †who can withhold himself from speaking?

3  Behold, thou hast instructed many,

And thou chast strengthened the weak hands.

4  Thy words have upholden chim that was falling,

And thou dhast strengthened †the feeble knees.

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

It toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.

6  Is not this ethy fear, thy fconfidence,

Thy hope, and ethe uprightness of thy ways?

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

Or where were the righteous cut off?

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

And sow hwickedness, reap the same.

9  By the blast of God they perish,

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

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

And the teeth of the iyoung lions, are broken.

11  The old lion jperisheth for lack of prey,

And the stout lion’s whelps kare scattered abroad.

12  Now a thing was †secretly brought to me,

And mine ear received la little thereof.

13  In mthoughts from the visions of the night,

When ndeep sleep falleth on men,

14  Fear †came upon me, and otrembling,

Which made †all my bones to shake.

15  Then pa spirit passed before my face;

The hair of my flesh qstood up:

16  It 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,

17  sShall mortal man be more just than God?

Shall a man be more pure than his maker?

18  Behold, he tput no trust in his servants;

||And his angels uhe charged with folly:

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

Whose foundation is in zthe dust,

Which are crushed before athe moth?

20  bThey are †destroyed from morning to evening:

They perish for ever without any cregarding it.

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

eThey die, even without wisdom.

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

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

2  For bwrath killeth the foolish man,

And ||envy slayeth the silly one.

3  cI have seen the foolish taking root:

But suddenly I cursed his habitation.

4  dHis children are far from safety,

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

5  Whose harvest the hungry eateth up,

And taketh it even out of gthe thorns,

And the robber swalloweth up their hsubstance.

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

Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;

7  Yet man is iborn unto ||trouble,

As †the sparks fly upward.

8  I would seek unto God,

And unto God would I commit my cause:

9  jWhich doeth great things †and unsearchable;

Marvellous things †without number:

10  kWho giveth rain upon the earth,

And sendeth waters upon the †fields:

11  lTo set up on high those that be low;

That those which mmourn may be exalted to safety.

12  He ndisappointeth the devices of the crafty,

So that their hands ||cannot perform their enterprise.

13  oHe taketh the wise in their own craftiness:

And the counsel of the pfroward is carried headlong.

14  They ||meet with darkness in the daytime,

And qgrope in the noonday as in the night.

15  But rhe saveth the poor from the sword,

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

16  So the poor hath hope,

And siniquity stoppeth her mouth.

17  Behold, thappy is the man whom God correcteth:

Therefore udespise not thou the chastening of xthe Almighty:

18  For he maketh sore, and bindeth up:

yHe woundeth, and his hands make whole.

19  zHe shall deliver thee in asix troubles:

Yea, in aseven bthere shall no evil touch thee.

20  cIn famine he shall redeem thee from death:

And in war †from the power of the sword.

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

Neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.

22  At destruction and efamine thou shalt flaugh:

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

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

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

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

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

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

And thine joffspring kas the grass of the earth.

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

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

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

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

6 But Job answered and said,

2  Oh that my agrief were throughly weighed,

And my aacalamity †laid in the balances together!

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

Therefore ||my words care swallowed up.

4  For 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.

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

Or loweth the ox over his gfodder?

6  Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt?

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

7  The things that my soul refused to touch

Are as my sorrowful meat.

8  Oh that I might have hmy request;

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

9  Even that iit would please God to jdestroy me;

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

10  Then 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.

11  What is my strength, that I should hope?

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

12  Is my strength the strength of stones?

Or is my flesh †of brass?

13  Is 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.

15  My brethren rhave dealt deceitfully as a brook,

And sas the stream of brooks they pass away;

16  Which are blackish by reason of the ice,

And wherein the snow is hid:

17  What time they wax warm, †they vanish:

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

18  The paths of their way tare turned aside;

They go to unothing, and perish.

19  The troops of xTema looked,

The companies of ySheba waited for them.

20  They 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.

22  Did I say, Bring unto me?

Or, Give a reward for me of your asubstance?

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

Or, Redeem me from the hand of the bmighty?

24  Teach me, and I will hold my tongue:

And cause me to understand wherein I have erred.

25  How cforcible are right words!

But what doth your arguing reprove?

26  Do ye imagine to reprove words,

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

27  Yea, †ye overwhelm the fatherless,

And ye edig a pit for your friend.

28  Now therefore be content, flook upon me;

For it is †evident unto you if I lie.

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

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

30  Is there iniquity in my tongue?

Cannot †my taste discern hperverse things?

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

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

2  As a servant †earnestly desireth bthe shadow,

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

3  So am I made to possess dmonths of evanity,

And wearisome nights are appointed to me.

4  eeWhen 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.

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

My skin is broken, and gbecome loathsome.

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

And are spent without hope.

7  O remember that my life is iwind:

Mine eye †shall no more ||see good.

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

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

9  As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away:

So he that lgoeth down to the grave shall come …