Job 16–18

¹And Job answereth and saith:— ²I have heard many such things, Miserable comforters are ye all. ³Is there an end to words of wind? Or what doth embolden thee that thou answerest? ⁴I also, like you, might speak, If your soul were in my soul’s stead. I might join against you with words, And nod at you with my head. ⁵I might harden you with my mouth, And the moving of my lips might be sparing.

⁶If I speak, my pain is not restrained, And I cease—what goeth from me? ⁷Only, now, it hath wearied me; Thou hast desolated all my company, ⁸And Thou dost loathe me, For a witness it hath been, And rise up against me doth my failure, In my face it testifieth. ⁹His anger hath torn, and he hateth me, He hath gnashed at me with his teeth, My adversary sharpeneth his eyes for me. ¹⁰They have gaped on me with their mouth, In reproach they have smitten my cheeks, Together against me they set themselves. ¹¹God shutteth me up unto the perverse, And to the hands of the wicked turneth me over. ¹²At ease I have been, and he breaketh me, And he hath laid hold on my neck, And he breaketh me in pieces, And he raiseth me to him for a mark. ¹³Go round against me do his archers. He splitteth my reins, and spareth not, He poureth out to the earth my gall. ¹⁴He breaketh me—breach upon breach, He runneth upon me as a mighty one. ¹⁵Sackcloth I have sewed on my skin, And have rolled in the dust my horn. ¹⁶My face is foul with weeping, And on mine eyelids is death-shade.

¹⁷Not for violence in my hands, And my prayer is pure. ¹⁸O earth, do not thou cover my blood! And let there not be a place for my cry. ¹⁹Also, now, lo, in the heavens is my witness, And my testifier in the high places. ²⁰My interpreter is my friend, Unto God hath mine eye dropped: ²¹And he reasoneth for a man with God, And a son of man for his friend. ²²When a few years do come, Then a path I return not do I go.

Chapter 17

¹My spirit hath been destroyed, My days extinguished—graves are for me. ²If not—mockeries are with me. And in their provocations mine eye lodgeth. ³Place, I pray Thee, my pledge with Thee; Who is he that striketh hand with me? ⁴For their heart Thou hast hidden From understanding, Therefore Thou dost not exalt them. ⁵For a portion he sheweth friendship, And the eyes of his sons are consumed. ⁶And he set me up for a proverb of the peoples, And a wonder before them I am. ⁷And dim from sorrow is mine eye, And my members as a shadow all of them. ⁸Astonished are the upright at this, And the innocent against the profane Stirreth himself up. ⁹And the righteous layeth hold on his way, And the clean of hands addeth strength, And—dumb are they all.

¹⁰Return, and come in, I pray you, And I find not among you a wise man. ¹¹My days have passed by, My devices have been broken off, The possessions of my heart! ¹²Night for day they appoint, Light is near because of darkness. ¹³If I wait—Sheol is my house, In darkness I have spread out my couch. ¹⁴To corruption I have called:—‘Thou art my father.’ ‘My mother’ and ‘my sister’—to the worm. ¹⁵And where is now my hope? Yea, my hope, who doth behold it? ¹⁶To the parts of Sheol ye go down, If together on the dust we may rest.

Chapter 18

¹And Bildad the Shuhite answereth and saith:— ²When do ye set an end to words? Consider ye, and afterwards do we speak. ³Wherefore have we been reckoned as cattle? We have been defiled in your eyes! ⁴(He is tearing himself in his anger.) For thy sake is earth forsaken? And removed is a rock from its place?

⁵Also, the light of the wicked is extinguished. And there doth not shine a spark of his fire. ⁶The light hath been dark in his tent, And his lamp over him is extinguished. ⁷Straitened are the steps of his strength, And cast him down doth his own counsel. ⁸For he is sent into a net by his own feet, And on a snare he doth walk habitually. ⁹Seize on the heel doth a gin, Prevail over him do the designing. ¹⁰Hidden in the earth is his cord, And his trap on the path.

¹¹Round about terrified him have terrors, And they have scattered him—at his feet. ¹²Hungry is his sorrow, And calamity is ready at his side. ¹³It consumeth the parts of his skin, Consume his parts doth death’s first-born. ¹⁴Drawn from his tent is his confidence, And it causeth him to step to the king of terrors. ¹⁵It dwelleth in his tent—out of his provender, Scattered over his habitation is sulphur. ¹⁶From beneath his roots are dried up, And from above cut off is his crop. ¹⁷His memorial hath perished from the land, And he hath no name on the street. ¹⁸They thrust him from light unto darkness, And from the habitable earth cast him out. ¹⁹He hath no continuator, Nor successor among his people, And none is remaining in his dwellings. ²⁰At this day westerns have been astonished And easterns have taken fright. ²¹Only these are tabernacles of the perverse, And this the place God hath not known.

Chapter 19