Job 6-7

Jubilee Bible 2000

6 ¶ And Job answered and said,

² Oh that my grief and calamity were justly weighed and laid equally in the balances!

³ For it would be heavier than the sand of the sea; therefore, my words are swallowed up.

⁴ For the arrows of the Almighty are within me; my spirit drinks of the poison; and terrors of God combat me.

⁵ Does the wild ass bray when he has grass? Does the ox low over his fodder?

⁶ Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

⁷ The things that my soul refused to touch before, now by my sorrow are my food.

⁸ ¶ Oh, that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for!

⁹ Even that it would please God to destroy me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!

¹⁰ Then should my comfort grow; I would hold on to sorrow without mercy; for I have not contradicted the words of the Holy One.

¹¹ What is my strength that I should hope? What is my end that I should prolong my life?

¹² Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of steel?

¹³ Am I not doing all that I can, and even with all this I lack the power to do anything?

¹⁴ ¶ He that is afflicted deserves mercy from his friend; but he has forsaken the fear of the Almighty.

¹⁵ My brethren have lied to me as a brook; they passed away as an impetuous stream,

¹⁶ which was hidden by ice and covered by snow.

¹⁷ Which in the time of heat, they vanish; when they are heated, they disappear out of their place;

¹⁸ they turn aside out of the paths of their way; they go to nothing and perish.

¹⁹ The travelers of Tema looked; the traveling companies of Sheba waited for them.

²⁰ They were put to shame because of their hope; they came there and found them confused.

²¹ Now ye are certainly as they; ye have seen the torment and are afraid.

²² ¶ Did I say, Bring unto me and pay for me out of your substance

²³ and deliver me from the enemy’s hand and ransom me from the hand of the mighty?

²⁴ Teach me, and I will be silent; and cause me to understand in what I have erred.

²⁵ How forcible are the words of rectitude! But what does your argument reprove?

²⁶ Are ye not thinking up words of reproof and throw to the wind words that are lost?

²⁷ Ye also overwhelm the fatherless and dig a pit before your friend.

²⁸ Now, therefore, if ye desire, look upon me and see if I shall lie in your presence.

²⁹ Turn now, and there is no iniquity; return again to look for my righteousness in this.

³⁰ If there is iniquity in my tongue or if my taste cannot discern the torments.

7 ¶ Man certainly has an appointed amount of time upon earth, and his days are like the days of a hireling.

² As a slave earnestly desires the shade and as a hireling waits for rest from his work,

³ so I am made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.

⁴ When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise? I measure the night, and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.

⁵ My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken and abominable.

⁶ My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle and are spent without hope.

⁷ ¶ Remember thou that my life is wind and that my eyes shall not return to see good.

⁸ The eyes of those that see me now shall not see me again; thine eyes shall be upon me, and I will cease to be.

⁹ As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he that goes down to Sheol, who shall not come up again;

¹⁰ he shall return no more to his house; neither shall his place know him any more.

¹¹ Therefore, I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹² Am I a sea, or a dragon, that thou settest a watch over me?

¹³ When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint;

¹⁴ then thou dost scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions.

¹⁵ And my soul thought it better to be strangled and desired death more than my bones.

¹⁶ I loathed life; I do not desire to live for ever; let me alone; for my days are vanity.

¹⁷ ¶ What is man that thou should magnify him and that thou should set thine heart upon him

¹⁸ and that thou should visit him every morning and try him every moment?

¹⁹ For how long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone until I swallow down my spittle?

²⁰ If I have sinned, what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?

²¹ And why dost thou not take away my rebellion and pass over my iniquity? For now I shall sleep in the dust; and if thou shalt seek me in the morning, I shall not be found.