JOB 16
16:1 Then Job answered and said,
16:2 I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.
16:3 Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?
16:4 I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.
16:5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.
16:6 Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?
16:7 But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.
16:8 And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.
16:9 He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
16:10 They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.
16:11 God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
16:12 I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.
16:13 His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.
16:14 He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.
16:15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.
16:16 My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
16:17 Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.
16:18 O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.
16:19 Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.
16:20 My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
16:21 O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!
16:22 When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.JOB 17
17:1 My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
17:2 Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
17:3 Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?
17:4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
17:5 He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
17:6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
17:7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
17:8 Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
17:9 The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
17:10 But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.
17:11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
17:12 They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
17:13 If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
17:14 I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
17:15 And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
17:16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.JOB 18
18:1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
18:2 How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.
18:3 Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?
18:4 He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?
18:5 Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.
18:6 The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.
18:7 The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.
18:8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.
18:9 The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him.
18:10 The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.
18:11 Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
18:12 His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side.
18:13 It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.
18:14 His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.
18:15 It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.
18:16 His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.
18:17 His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.
18:18 He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
18:19 He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.
18:20 They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.
18:21 Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.JOB 19
19:1 Then Job answered and said,
19:2 How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
19:3 These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.
19:4 And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.
19:5 If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach: 19:6 Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.
19:7 Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.
19:8 He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
19:9 He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
19:10 He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.
19:11 He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.
19:12 His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.
19:13 He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.
19:14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
19:15 They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
19:16 I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.
19:17 My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body.
19:18 Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.
19:19 All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.
19:20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
19:21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
19:22 Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
19:23 Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
19:24 That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!
19:25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
19:26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
19:27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
19:28 But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?
19:29 Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.JOB 20
20:1 Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
20:2 Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.
20:3 I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.
20:4 Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth,
20:5 That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
20:6 Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;
20:7 Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
20:8 He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
20:9 The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.
20:10 His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.
20:11 His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.
20:12 Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;
20:13 Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth:
20:14 Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.
20:15 He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.
20:16 He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.
20:17 He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.
20:18 That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.
20:19 Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;
20:20 Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.
20:21 There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.
20:22 In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.
20:23 When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.
20:24 He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.
20:25 It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him.
20:26 All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.
20:27 The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.
20:28 The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.
20:29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.