Job 24-28 (Darby Translation)

Job 24

 ¹Why are not times treasured up with the Almighty? why do not they that know him see his days?

 ²They remove the landmarks; they violently take away the flocks and pasture them;

 ³They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge;

 ⁴They turn the needy out of the way: the afflicted of the land all hide themselves.

 ⁵Lo, [as] wild asses in the desert, they go forth to their work, seeking early for the prey: the wilderness [yieldeth] them food for [their] children.

 ⁶They reap in the field the fodder thereof, and they gather the vintage of the wicked;

 ⁷They pass the night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold;

 ⁸They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and for want of a shelter embrace the rock ...

 ⁹They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor:

 ¹⁰These go naked without clothing, and, hungry, they bear the sheaf;

 ¹¹They press out oil within their walls, they tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.

 ¹²Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out; and +God imputeth not the impiety.

 ¹³There are those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.

 ¹⁴The murderer riseth with the light, killeth the afflicted and needy, and in the night is as a thief.

 ¹⁵And the eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me; and he putteth a covering on [his] face.

 ¹⁶In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves in; they know not the light:

 ¹⁷For the morning is to them all [as] the shadow of death; for they are familiar with the terrors of the shadow of death.

 ¹⁸He is swift on the face of the waters; their portion is cursed on the earth: he turneth not unto the way of the vineyards.

 ¹⁹Drought and heat consume snow waters; so doth Sheol those that have sinned.

 ²⁰The womb forgetteth him; the worm feedeth sweetly on him: he shall be no more remembered; and unrighteousness is broken as a tree, --

 ²¹He that despoileth the barren that beareth not, and doeth not good to the widow:

 ²²He draweth also the mighty with his power; he riseth up, and no [man] is sure of life.

 ²³[God] setteth him in safety, and he resteth thereon; but his eyes are upon their ways.

 ²⁴They are exalted for a little, and are no more; they are laid low; like all [other] are they gathered, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.

 ²⁵If it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?

Job 25

 ¹And Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,

 ²Dominion and fear are with him; he maketh peace in his high places.

 ³Is there any number of his troops? and upon whom doth not his light arise?

 ⁴And how should man be just with ùGod? Or how should he be clean that is born of a woman?

 ⁵Lo, even the moon is not bright; and the stars are not pure in his sight:

 ⁶How much less man, a worm, and the son of man, a worm!

Job 26

 ¹And Job answered and said,

 ²How hast thou helped the powerless; how saved the arm that is without strength!

 ³How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom, and abundantly declared the thing as it is!

 ⁴For whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee?

 ⁵The shades tremble beneath the waters and the inhabitants thereof;

 ⁶Sheol is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.

 ⁷He stretcheth out the north over empty space, he hangeth the earth upon nothing;

 ⁸He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them.

 ⁹He covereth the face of his throne, he spreadeth his cloud upon it.

 ¹⁰He hath traced a fixed circle over the waters, unto the confines of light and darkness.

 ¹¹The pillars of the heavens tremble and are astonished at his rebuke.

 ¹²He stirreth up the sea by his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through Rahab.

 ¹³By his Spirit the heavens are adorned; his hand hath formed the fleeing serpent.

 ¹⁴Lo, these are the borders of his ways; but what a whisper of a word do we hear of him! And the thunder of his power, who can understand?

Job 27

 ¹And Job continued his parable and said,

 ²[As] ùGod liveth, who hath taken away my right, and the Almighty, who hath embittered my soul,

 ³All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of +God is in my nostrils,

 ⁴My lips shall not speak unrighteousness, nor my tongue utter deceit!

 ⁵Be it far from me that I should justify you; till I die I will not remove my blamelessness from me.

 ⁶My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart reproacheth [me] not one of my days.

 ⁷Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

 ⁸For what is the hope of the ungodly, when [God] cutteth him off, when +God taketh away his soul?

 ⁹Will ùGod hear his cry when distress cometh upon him?

 ¹⁰Doth he delight himself in the Almighty? will he at all times call upon +God?

 ¹¹I will teach you concerning the hand of ùGod; what is with the Almighty will I not conceal.

 ¹²Behold, ye yourselves have all seen [it]; and why are ye thus altogether vain?

 ¹³This is the portion of the wicked man with ùGod, and the heritage of the violent, which they receive from the Almighty: --

 ¹⁴If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword, and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread;

 ¹⁵Those that remain of him shall be buried by death, and his widows shall not weep.

 ¹⁶Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay;

 ¹⁷He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on; and the innocent shall divide the silver.

 ¹⁸He buildeth his house as the moth, and as a booth that a keeper maketh.

 ¹⁹He lieth down rich, but will do so no more; he openeth his eyes, and he is not.

 ²⁰Terrors overtake him like waters; a whirlwind stealeth him away in the night.

 ²¹The east wind carrieth him away and he is gone; and as a storm it hurleth him out of his place.

 ²²And [God] shall cast upon him and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand.

 ²³[Men] shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.

Job 28

 ¹Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold which they refine;

 ²Iron is taken out of the dust, and copper is molten out of the stone.

 ³[Man] putteth an end to the darkness, and exploreth to the utmost limit, the stones of darkness and of the shadow of death.

 ⁴He openeth a shaft far from the inhabitants [of the earth]: forgotten of the foot, they hang suspended; away below men they hover.

 ⁵As for the earth, out of it cometh bread, and underneath it is turned up as by fire;

 ⁶The stones of it are the place of sapphires, and it hath dust of gold.

 ⁷It is a path no bird of prey knoweth, and the vulture's eye hath not seen it;

 ⁸The proud beasts have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed over it.

 ⁹[Man] putteth forth his hand upon the flinty rock, he overturneth the mountains by the root.

 ¹⁰He cutteth out channels in the rocks, and his eye seeth every precious thing.

 ¹¹He bindeth the streams that they drip not, and what is hidden he bringeth forth to light.

 ¹²But wisdom, where shall it be found? and where is the place of understanding?

 ¹³Man knoweth not the value thereof; and it is not found in the land of the living.

 ¹⁴The deep saith, It is not in me; and the sea saith, It is not with me.

 ¹⁵Choice gold cannot be given for it, nor silver be weighed for its price.

 ¹⁶It is not set in the balance with gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, and the sapphire.

 ¹⁷Gold and glass cannot be compared to it, nor vessels of fine gold be its exchange.

 ¹⁸Corals and crystal are no more remembered; yea, the acquisition of wisdom is above rubies.

 ¹⁹The topaz of Ethiopia shall not be compared to it, neither shall it be set in the balance with pure gold.

 ²⁰Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?

 ²¹For it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the fowl of the heavens.

 ²²Destruction and death say, We have heard its report with our ears.

 ²³God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth its place:

 ²⁴For he looketh to the ends of the earth, he seeth under the whole heaven.

 ²⁵In making a weight for the wind, and meting out the waters by measure,

 ²⁶In appointing a statute for the rain, and a way for the thunder's flash:

 ²⁷Then did he see it, and declare it; he established it, yea, and searched it out;

 ²⁸And unto man he said, Lo, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.