Job 17-20 (Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition)

Job 17

 ¹My spirit shall be wasted, my days shall be shortened, and only the grave remaineth for me.

    ²I have not sinned, and my eye abideth in bitterness.

    ³Deliver me O Lord, and set me beside thee, and let any man's hand fight against me.

    ⁴Thou hast set their heart far from understanding, therefore they shall not be exalted.

    ⁵He promiseth a prey to his companions, and the eyes of his children shall fail.

    ⁶He hath made me as it were a byword of the people, and I am an example before them.

    ⁷My eye is dim through indignation, and my limbs are brought as it were to nothing.

    ⁸The just shall be astonished at this, and the innocent shall be raised up against the hypocrite.

    ⁹And the just man shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.

    ¹⁰Wherefore be you all converted, and come, and I shall not find among you any wise man.

    ¹¹My days have passed away, my thoughts are dissipated, tormenting my heart.

    ¹²They have turned night into day, and after darkness I hope for light again.

    ¹³If I wait hell is my house, and I have made my bed in darkness.

    ¹⁴If I have said to rottenness: Thou art my father; to worms, my mother and my sister.

    ¹⁵Where is now then my expectation, and who considereth my patience?

    ¹⁶All that I have shall go down into the deepest pit: thinkest thou that there at least I shall have rest?

   

Job 18

 ¹Then Baldad the Suhite answered, and said:

    ²How long will you throw out words? understand first, and so let us speak.

    ³Why are we reputed as beasts, and counted vile before you?

    ⁴Thou that destroyest thy soul in thy fury, shall the earth be forsaken for thee, and shall rocks be removed out of their place?

    ⁵Shall not the light of the wicked be extinguished, and the flame of his fire not shine?

    ⁶The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and the lamp that is over him, shall be put out.

    ⁷The step of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down headlong.

    ⁸For he hath thrust his feet into a net, and walketh in its meshes.

    ⁹The sole of his foot shall be held in a snare, and thirst shall burn against him.

    ¹⁰A gin is hidden for him in the earth, and his trap upon the path.

    ¹¹Fears shall terrify him on every side, and shall entangle his feet.

    ¹²Let his strength be wasted with famine, and let hunger invade his ribs.

    ¹³Let it devour the beauty of his skin, let the firstborn death consume his arms.

    ¹⁴Let his confidence be rooted out of his tabernacle, and let destruction tread upon him like a king.

    ¹⁵Let the companions of him that is not, dwell in his tabernacle, let brimstone be sprinkled in his tent.

    ¹⁶Let his roots be dried up beneath, and his harvest destroyed above.

    ¹⁷Let the memory of him perish from the earth and let not his name be renowned in the streets.

    ¹⁸He shall drive him out of light into darkness, and shall remove him out of the world.

    ¹⁹His seed shall not subsist, nor his offspring among his people, nor any remnants in his country.

    ²⁰They that come after him shall be astonished at his day, and horror shall fall upon them that went before.

    ²¹These men are the tabernacles of the wicked, and this the place of him that knoweth not God.

   

Job 19

 ¹Then Job answered , and said:

    ²How long do you afflict my soul, and break me in pieces with words?

    ³Behold, these ten times you confound me, and are not ashamed to oppress me.

    ⁴For if I have been ignorant, my ignorance shall be with me.

    ⁵But you have set yourselves up against me, and reprove me with my reproaches.

    ⁶At least now understand, that God hath not afflicted me with an equal judgment, and compassed me with his scourges.

    ⁷Behold I cry suffering violence, and no one will hear: I shall cry aloud, and there is none to judge.

    ⁸He hath hedged in my path round about, and I cannot pass, and in my way he hath set darkness.

    ⁹He hath stripped me of my glory, and hath taken the crown from my head.

    ¹⁰He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am lost, and he hath taken away my hope, as from a tree that is plucked up.

    ¹¹His wrath is kindled against me, and he hath counted me as his enemy.

    ¹²His troops have come together, and have made themselves a way by me, and have besieged my tabernacle round about.

    ¹³He hath put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintance like strangers have departed from me.

    ¹⁴My kinsmen have forsaken me, and they that knew me, have forgotten me.

    ¹⁵They that dwelt in my house, and my maidservants have counted me a stranger, and I have been like an alien in their eyes.

    ¹⁶I called my servant, and he gave me no answer, I entreated him with my own mouth.

    ¹⁷My wife hath abhorred my breath, and I entreated the children of my womb.

    ¹⁸Even fools despise me; and when I gone from them, they spoke against me.

    ¹⁹They that were sometime my counsellors, have abhorred me: and he whom I love most is turned against me.

    ²⁰The flesh being consumed. My bone hath cleaved to my skin, and nothing but lips are left about my teeth.

    ²¹Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you my friends, because the hand of the Lord hath touched me.

    ²²Why do you persecute me as God, and glut yourselves with my flesh?

    ²³Who will grant me that my words may be written? Who will grant me that they may be marked down in a book?

    ²⁴With an iron pen and in a plate of lead, or else be graven with an instrument in flint stone.

    ²⁵For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth.

    ²⁶And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I will see my God.

    ²⁷Whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another: this my hope is laid up in my bosom.

    ²⁸Why then do you say now: Let us persecute him, and let us find occasion of word against him?

    ²⁹Flee then from the face of the sword, for the sword is the revenger of iniquities: and know ye that there is judgment.

   

Job 20

 ¹Then Sophar the Naamathite answered, and said:

    ²Therefore various thoughts succeed one another in me, and my mind is hurried away to different things.

    ³The doctrine with which thou reprovest me, I will hear, and the spirit of my understanding shall answer for me.

    ⁴This I know from the beginning, since man was placed upon the earth,

    ⁵that the praise of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment.

    ⁶If his pride mount up even to heaven, and his head touch the clouds:

    ⁷In the end he shall be destroyed like a dunghill, and they that has seen him shall say: Where is he?

    ⁸As a dream that fleeth away he shall not be found, he shall pass as a vision of the night:

    ⁹The eyes that had seen him, shall see him no more, neither shall his place any more behold him.

    ¹⁰His children shall be oppressed with want, and his hands shall render him his sorrow.

    ¹¹His bones shall be filled with the vices of his youth, and they shall sleep with him in the dust.

    ¹²For when evil shall be sweet in his mouth, he will hide it under his tongue.

    ¹³He will spare it, and not leave it, and will hide it in his throat.

    ¹⁴His bread in his belly shall be turned into the gall of asps within him.

    ¹⁵The riches which he hath swallowed; he shall vomit up, and God shall draw them out of his belly.

    ¹⁶He shall suck the head of asps, and the viper's tongue shall kill him.

    ¹⁷(Let him not see the streams of the river, the brooks of honey and of butter.)

    ¹⁸He shall be punished for all that he did, and yet shall not be consumed: according to the multitude of his devices so also shall he suffer.

    ¹⁹Because he broke in and stripped the poor: he hath violently taken away a house which he did not build.

    ²⁰And yet his belly was not filled: and when he hath the things he coveted, he shall not be able to possess them.

    ²¹There was nothing left of his meat, and therefore nothing shall continue of his goods:

    ²²When he shall be filled, he shall be straitened, he shall burn, and every sorrow shall fall upon him.

    ²³May his belly be filled, that God may send forth the wrath of his indignation upon him, and rain down his war upon him.

    ²⁴He shall flee from weapons of iron, and shall fall upon a bow of brass.

    ²⁵The sword is drawn out, and cometh forth from its scabbard, and glittereth in his bitterness: the terrible ones shall go and come upon him.

    ²⁶All darkness is hid in his secret places: a fire that is not kindled shall devour him, he shall be afflicted when left in his tabernacle.

    ²⁷The heavens shall reveal his iniquity, and the earth shall rise up against him.

    ²⁸The offspring of his house shall be exposed, he shall be pulled down in the day of God's wrath.

    ²⁹This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the inheritance of his doings from the Lord.