Job 17-20 (Young's Literal Translation)

Job 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?

 ¹⁶[To] the parts of Sheol ye go down, If together on the dust we may rest.

Job 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.

Job 19

 ¹And Job answereth and saith: --

 ²Till when do ye afflict my soul, And bruise me with words?

 ³These ten times ye put me to shame, ye blush not. Ye make yourselves strange to me --

 ⁴And also -- truly, I have erred, With me doth my error remain.

 ⁵If, truly, over me ye magnify yourselves, And decide against me my reproach;

 ⁶Know now, that God turned me upside down, And His net against me hath set round,

 ⁷Lo, I cry out -- violence, and am not answered, I cry aloud, and there is no judgment.

 ⁸My way He hedged up, and I pass not over, And on my paths darkness He placeth.

 ⁹Mine honour from off me He hath stripped, And He turneth the crown from my head.

 ¹⁰He breaketh me down round about, and I go, And removeth like a tree my hope.

 ¹¹And He kindleth against me His anger, And reckoneth me to Him as His adversaries.

 ¹²Come in do His troops together, And they raise up against me their way, And encamp round about my tent.

 ¹³My brethren from me He hath put far off, And mine acquaintances surely Have been estranged from me.

 ¹⁴Ceased have my neighbours And my familiar friends have forgotten me,

 ¹⁵Sojourners of my house and my maids, For a stranger reckon me: An alien I have been in their eyes.

 ¹⁶To my servant I have called, And he doth not answer, With my mouth I make supplication to him.

 ¹⁷My spirit is strange to my wife, And my favours to the sons of my [mother's] womb.

 ¹⁸Also sucklings have despised me, I rise, and they speak against me.

 ¹⁹Abominate me do all the men of my counsel, And those I have loved, Have been turned against me.

 ²⁰To my skin and to my flesh Cleaved hath my bone, And I deliver myself with the skin of my teeth.

 ²¹Pity me, pity me, ye my friends, For the hand of God hath stricken against me.

 ²²Why do you pursue me as God? And with my flesh are not satisfied?

 ²³Who doth grant now, That my words may be written? Who doth grant that in a book they may be graven?

 ²⁴With a pen of iron and lead -- For ever in a rock they may be hewn.

 ²⁵That -- I have known my Redeemer, The Living and the Last, For the dust he doth rise.

 ²⁶And after my skin hath compassed this [body], Then from my flesh I see God:

 ²⁷Whom I -- I see on my side, And mine eyes have beheld, and not a stranger, Consumed have been my reins in my bosom.

 ²⁸But ye say, `Why do we pursue after him?' And the root of the matter hath been found in me.

 ²⁹Be ye afraid because of the sword, For furious [are] the punishments of the sword, That ye may know that [there is] a judgment.

Job 20

 ¹And Zophar the Naamathite answereth and saith: --

 ²Therefore my thoughts cause me to answer, And because of my sensations in me.

 ³The chastisement of my shame I hear, And the spirit of mine understanding Doth cause me to answer:

 ⁴This hast thou known from antiquity? Since the placing of man on earth?

 ⁵That the singing of the wicked [is] short, And the joy of the profane for a moment,

 ⁶Though his excellency go up to the heavens, And his head against a cloud he strike --

 ⁷As his own dung for ever he doth perish, His beholders say: `Where [is] he?'

 ⁸As a dream he fleeth, and they find him not, And he is driven away as a vision of the night,

 ⁹The eye hath not seen him, and addeth not. And not again doth his place behold him.

 ¹⁰His sons do the poor oppress, And his hands give back his wealth.

 ¹¹His bones have been full of his youth, And with him on the dust it lieth down.

 ¹²Though he doth sweeten evil in his mouth, Doth hide it under his tongue,

 ¹³Hath pity on it, and doth not forsake it, And keep it back in the midst of his palate,

 ¹⁴His food in his bowels is turned, The bitterness of asps [is] in his heart.

 ¹⁵Wealth he hath swallowed, and doth vomit it. From his belly God driveth it out.

 ¹⁶Gall of asps he sucketh, Slay him doth the tongue of a viper.

 ¹⁷He looketh not on rivulets, Flowing of brooks of honey and butter.

 ¹⁸He is giving back [what] he laboured for, And doth not consume [it]; As a bulwark [is] his exchange, and he exults not.

 ¹⁹For he oppressed -- he forsook the poor, A house he hath taken violently away, And he doth not build it.

 ²⁰For he hath not known ease in his belly. With his desirable thing he delivereth not himself.

 ²¹There is not a remnant to his food, Therefore his good doth not stay.

 ²²In the fulness of his sufficiency he is straitened. Every perverse hand doth meet him.

 ²³It cometh to pass, at the filling of his belly, He sendeth forth against him The fierceness of His anger, Yea, He raineth on him in his eating.

 ²⁴He fleeth from an iron weapon, Pass through him doth a bow of brass.

 ²⁵One hath drawn, And it cometh out from the body, And a glittering weapon from his gall proceedeth. On him [are] terrors.

 ²⁶All darkness is hid for his treasures, Consume him doth a fire not blown, Broken is the remnant in his tent.

 ²⁷Reveal do the heavens his iniquity, And earth is raising itself against him.

 ²⁸Remove doth the increase of his house, Poured forth in a day of His anger.

 ²⁹This [is] the portion of a wicked man from God. And an inheritance appointed him by God.