Chronological
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.
8 ¶ Then Bildad, the Shuhite, answered and said,
2 How long wilt thou speak such things and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?
3 Shall God pervert that which is right or shall the Almighty pervert justice?
4 Because thy sons sinned against him, he cast them away in the place of their rebellion;
5 if thou would seek God early and make thy supplication to the Almighty,
6 if thou wert pure and upright, surely now he would awake upon thee and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.
7 In such a way that thy beginning would have been small, in comparison to the great increase of thy latter.
8 ¶ Ask, I pray thee, of the former age, and be willing to enquire of thy fathers regarding them;
9 for we are but of yesterday and know nothing because our days upon earth are as a shadow.
10 Shall they not teach thee and tell thee and utter these words out of their heart?
11 Can the rush grow up without mire? Can the meadow grow without water?
12 Whilst it is yet in its greenness and not cut down, it withers before any other herb.
13 So are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish.
14 For his hope shall be cut off, and his trust is a spider’s web.
15 He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand; he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure.
16 Like a tree, he is green before the sun, and his branches go forth over his garden;
17 his roots weave themselves around a spring and secure themselves even in a stony place.
18 If he is uprooted from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.
19 Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the earth from where he was transplanted, others shall grow.
20 ¶ Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man; neither will he help the evil doers.
21 He will yet fill thy mouth with laughing and thy lips with shouts of joy.
22 Those that hate thee shall be clothed with shame, and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to nought.
9 ¶ Then Job answered and said,
2 I know it is so of a truth, but how shall a man be justified with God?
3 If he desires to contend with him, he will not be able to answer him one thing of a thousand.
4 He is wise in heart and mighty in strength; who has hardened himself against him and remained in peace?
5 Who uproots the mountains in his anger, and they know not who overturned them.
6 Who removes the earth out of her place and causes her pillars to tremble.
7 Who commands the sun, and it rises not; and seals up the stars.
8 He alone extends the heavens and walks upon the waves of the sea.
9 He who made Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the secret places of the south.
10 He who does great things past finding out, and wonders without number.
11 Behold, he shall pass before me, and I shall not see him; and he shall pass on, and I shall not understand him.
12 Behold, he shall take away, who can cause him to restore? Who shall say unto him, What doest thou?
13 God will not withdraw his anger, and under him those who help, unto pride are bent over.
14 ¶ How much less shall I answer him and choose out my words to reason with him?
15 Who even though I am righteous, yet I would not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge.
16 Who if I were to invoke him, and he answered me; yet I would not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.
17 For he has broken me with a tempest and has multiplied my wounds without cause.
18 He will not suffer me to take my breath but has filled me with bitterness.
19 If we were to speak of his strength, he is certainly strong; and if of his judgment, who shall cause us to meet?
20 If I justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, he shall prove me perverse.
21 If I say I am imperfect, I know not my soul; I would condemn my life.
22 ¶ One thing remains, that I say, He consumes the perfect and the wicked.
23 If it is the scourge, it slays suddenly, and it does not laugh at the trial of the innocent.
24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges; if it is not he who does this then, who is it and where is he?
25 ¶ Now my days are swifter than a post; they fled away, they never saw good.
26 They are passed away as the ships of Ebeh {Heb. reed} as the eagle that throws himself on the prey.
27 If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness and comfort myself;
28 I am afraid of all my troubles; I know that thou wilt not hold me guiltless.
29 If I am wicked, why then shall I toil in vain?
30 If I wash myself with snow water and make my hands never so clean;
31 yet thou shalt plunge me into the pit, and my own clothes shall abhor me.
32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together unto judgment.
33 Neither is there any arbiter between us, that might lay his hand upon us both.
34 Let him take his tormentor away from me, and his terror will not perturb me.
35 Then I would speak and not fear him, because in this state I am not myself.
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