JOB 16:1-19:29
16:1 Then Job answered and said,
16:2 I have heard many such things: miserable comforters [are] ye all.
16:3 Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?
16:4 I also could speak as ye [do]: if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.
16:5 [But] I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage [your grief].
16:6 Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and [though] I forbear, what am I eased?
16:7 But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.
16:8 And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, [which] is a witness [against me]: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.
16:9 He teareth [me] in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
16:10 They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.
16:11 God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
16:12 I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken [me] by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.
16:13 His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.
16:14 He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.
16:15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.
16:16 My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids [is] the shadow of death;
16:17 Not for [any] injustice in mine hands: also my prayer [is] pure.
16:18 O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.
16:19 Also now, behold, my witness [is] in heaven, and my record [is] on high.
16:20 My friends scorn me: [but] mine eye poureth out [tears] unto God.
16:21 O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man [pleadeth] for his neighbour!
16:22 When a few years are come, then I shall go the way [whence] I shall not return.
17:1 My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves [are ready] for me.
17:2 [Are there] not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
17:3 Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who [is] he [that] will strike hands with me?
17:4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt [them].
17:5 He that speaketh flattery to [his] friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
17:6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
17:7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members [are] as a shadow.
17:8 Upright [men] shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
17:9 The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
17:10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find [one] wise [man] among you.
17:11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, [even] the thoughts of my heart.
17:12 They change the night into day: the light [is] short because of darkness.
17:13 If I wait, the grave [is] mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
17:14 I have said to corruption, Thou [art] my father: to the worm, [Thou art] my mother, and my sister.
17:15 And where [is] now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
17:16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when [our] rest together [is] in the dust.
18:1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
18:2 How long [will it be ere] ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.
18:3 Wherefore are we counted as beasts, [and] reputed vile in your sight?
18:4 He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?
18:5 Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.
18:6 The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.
18:7 The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.
18:8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.
18:9 The gin shall take [him] by the heel, [and] the robber shall prevail against him.
18:10 The snare [is] laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.
18:11 Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
18:12 His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction [shall be] ready at his side.
18:13 It shall devour the strength of his skin: [even] the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.
18:14 His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.
18:15 It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because [it is] none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.
18:16 His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.
18:17 His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.
18:18 He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
18:19 He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.
18:20 They that come after [him] shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.
18:21 Surely such [are] the dwellings of the wicked, and this [is] the place [of him that] knoweth not God.
19:1 Then Job answered and said,
19:2 How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
19:3 These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed [that] ye make yourselves strange to me.
19:4 And be it indeed [that] I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.
19:5 If indeed ye will magnify [yourselves] against me, and plead against me my reproach:
19:6 Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.
19:7 Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but [there is] no judgment.
19:8 He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
19:9 He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown [from] my head.
19:10 He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.
19:11 He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as [one of] his enemies.
19:12 His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.
19:13 He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.
19:14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
19:15 They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
19:16 I called my servant, and he gave [me] no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.
19:17 My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s [sake] of mine own body.
19:18 Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.
19:19 All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.
19:20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
19:21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
19:22 Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
19:23 Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
19:24 That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!
19:25 For I know [that] my redeemer liveth, and [that] he shall stand at the latter [day] upon the earth:
19:26 And [though] after my skin [worms] destroy this [body], yet in my flesh shall I see God:
19:27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; [though] my reins be consumed within me.
19:28 But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?
19:29 Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath [bringeth] the punishments of the sword, that ye may know [there is] a judgment.