Job 3–41

Chapter 3

¹After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

²And Job said:

³“Let the day perish wherein I was born,

and the night which said,

‘A man-child is conceived.’

⁴Let that day be darkness!

May God above not seek it,

nor light shine upon it.

⁵Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.

Let clouds dwell upon it;

let the blackness of the day terrify it.

⁶That night—let thick darkness seize it!

let it not rejoice among the days of the year,

let it not come into the number of the months.

⁷Yea, let that night be barren;

let no joyful cry be heard^b in it.

⁸Let those curse it who curse the day,

who are skilled to rouse up Leviathan.

⁹Let the stars of its dawn be dark;

let it hope for light, but have none,

nor see the eyelids of the morning;

¹⁰because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,

nor hide trouble from my eyes.

¹¹“Why did I not die at birth,

come forth from the womb and expire?

¹²Why did the knees receive me?

Or why the breasts, that I should suck?

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

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

¹⁴with kings and counselors of the earth

who rebuilt ruins for themselves,

¹⁵or with princes who had gold,

who filled their houses with silver.

¹⁶Or why was I not as a hidden untimely birth,

as infants that never see the 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 slave is free from his master.

²⁰“Why is light given to him that is in misery,

and life to the bitter in soul,

²¹who long for death, but it comes not,

and dig for it more than for hid treasures;

²²who rejoice exceedingly,

and are glad, when they find the grave?

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

whom God has hedged in?

²⁴For my sighing comes as^c my bread,

and my groanings are poured out like water.

²⁵For the thing that I fear comes upon me,

and what I dread befalls me.

²⁶I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;

I have no rest; but trouble comes.”

Chapter 4

¹Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

²“If one ventures a word with you, will you be offended?

Yet who can keep from speaking?

³Behold, you have instructed many,

and you have strengthened the weak hands.

⁴Your words have upheld him who was stumbling,

and you have made firm the feeble knees.

⁵But now it has come to you, and you are impatient;

it touches you, and you are dismayed.

⁶Is not your fear of God your confidence,

and the integrity of your ways your hope?

⁷“Think now, who that was innocent ever perished?

Or where were the upright cut off?

⁸As I have seen, those who plow iniquity

and sow trouble reap the same.

⁹By the breath of God they perish,

and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.

¹⁰The roar of the lion, the voice of the fierce lion,

the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

¹¹The strong lion perishes for lack of prey,

and the whelps of the lioness are scattered.

¹²“Now a word was brought to me stealthily,

my ear received the whisper of it.

¹³Amid thoughts from visions of the night,

when deep sleep falls on men,

¹⁴dread came upon me, and trembling,

which made all my bones shake.

¹⁵A spirit glided past my face;

the hair of my flesh stood up.

¹⁶It stood still,

but I could not discern its appearance.

A form was before my eyes;

there was silence, then I heard a voice:

¹⁷‘Can mortal man be righteous before^d God?

Can a man be pure before^d his Maker?

¹⁸Even in his servants he puts no trust,

and his angels he charges with error;

¹⁹how much more those who dwell in houses of clay,

whose foundation is in the dust,

who are crushed before the moth.

²⁰Between morning and evening they are destroyed;

they perish for ever without any regarding it.

²¹If their tent-cord is plucked up within them,

do they not die, and that without wisdom?’

Chapter 5

¹“Call now; is there any one who will answer you?

To which of the holy ones will you turn?

²Surely vexation kills the fool,

and jealousy slays the simple.

³I have seen the fool taking root,

but suddenly I cursed his dwelling.

⁴His sons are far from safety,

they are crushed in the gate,

and there is no one to deliver them.

⁵His harvest the hungry eat,

and he takes it even out of thorns;^e

and the thirsty^f pant after his^g wealth.

⁶For affliction does not come from the dust,

nor does trouble sprout from the ground;

⁷but man is born to trouble

as the sparks fly upward.

⁸“As for me, I would seek God,

and to God would I commit my cause;

⁹who does great things and unsearchable,

marvelous things without number:

¹⁰he gives rain upon the earth

and sends waters upon the fields;

¹¹he sets on high those who are lowly,

and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

¹²He frustrates the devices of the crafty,

so that their hands achieve no success.

¹³He takes the wise in their own craftiness;

and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.

¹⁴They meet with darkness in the daytime,

and grope at noonday as in the night.

¹⁵But he saves the fatherless from their mouth,^h

the needy from the hand of the mighty.

¹⁶So the poor have hope,

and injustice shuts her mouth.

¹⁷“Behold, happy is the man whom God reproves;

therefore despise not the chastening of the Almighty.

¹⁸For he wounds, but he binds up;

he smites, but his hands heal.

¹⁹He will deliver you from six troubles;

in seven there shall no evil touch you.

²⁰In famine he will redeem you from death,

and in war from the power of the sword.

²¹You shall be hid from the scourge of the tongue,

and shall not fear destruction when it comes.

²²At destruction and famine you shall laugh,

and shall not fear the beasts of the earth.

²³For you shall be in league with the stones of the field,

and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.

²⁴You shall know that your tent is safe,

and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing.

²⁵You shall know also that your descendants shall be many,

and your offspring as the grass of the earth.

²⁶You shall come to your grave in ripe old age,

as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing floor in its season.

²⁷Lo, this we have searched out; it is true.

Hear, and know it for your good.”

Chapter 6

¹Then Job answered:

²“O that my vexation were weighed,

and all my calamity laid in the balances!

³For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea;

therefore my words have been rash.

⁴For the arrows of the Almighty are in me;

my spirit drinks their poison;

the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

⁵Does the wild ass bray when he has grass,

or the ox low over his fodder?

⁶Can that which is tasteless be eaten without salt,

or is there any taste in the slime of the purslane?^j

⁷My appetite refuses to touch them;

they are as food that is loathsome to me.^k

⁸“O that I might have my request,

and that God would grant my desire;

⁹that it would please God to crush me,

that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!

¹⁰This would be my consolation;

I would even exult^l in pain unsparing;

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

¹¹What is my strength, that I should wait?

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

¹²Is my strength the strength of stones,

or is my flesh bronze?

¹³In truth I have no help in me,

and any resource is driven from me.

¹⁴“He who withholds^m kindness from a friend

forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

¹⁵My brethren are treacherous as a torrent-bed,

as freshets that pass away,

¹⁶which are dark with ice,

and where the snow hides itself.

¹⁷In time of heat they disappear;

when it is hot, they vanish from their place.

¹⁸The caravans turn aside from their course;

they go up into the waste, and perish.

¹⁹The caravans of Tema look,

the travelers of Sheba hope.

²⁰They are disappointed because they were confident;

they come thither and are confounded.

²¹Such you have now become to me;ⁿ

you see my calamity, and are afraid.

²²Have I said, ‘Make me a gift’?

Or, ‘From your wealth offer a bribe for me’?

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

Or, ‘Ransom me from the hand of oppressors’?

²⁴“Teach me, and I will be silent;

make me understand how I have erred.

²⁵How forceful are honest words!

But what does reproof from you reprove?

²⁶Do you think that you can reprove words,

when the speech of a despairing man is wind?

²⁷You would even cast lots over the fatherless,

and bargain over your friend.

²⁸“But now, be pleased to look at me;

for I will not lie to your face.

²⁹Turn, I pray, let no wrong be done.

Turn now, my vindication is at stake.

³⁰Is there any wrong on my tongue?

Cannot my taste discern calamity?

Chapter 7

¹“Has not man a hard service upon earth,

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

²Like a slave who longs for the shadow,

and like a hireling who looks for his wages,

³so I am allotted months of emptiness,

and nights of misery are apportioned to me.

⁴When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’

But the night is long,

and I am full of tossing till the dawn.

⁵My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;

my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh.

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

and come to their end without hope.

⁷“Remember that my life is a breath;

my eye will never again see good.

⁸The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more;

while thy eyes are upon me, I shall be gone.

⁹As the cloud fades and vanishes,

so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up;

¹⁰he returns no more to his house,

nor does his place know him any more.

¹¹“Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;

I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;

I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹²Am I the sea, or a sea monster,

that thou settest a guard over me?

¹³When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me,

my couch will ease my complaint,’

¹⁴then thou dost scare me with dreams

and terrify me with visions,

¹⁵so that I would choose strangling

and death rather than my bones.

¹⁶I loathe my life; I would not live for ever.

Let me alone, for my days are a…