Job 16:12–17

²⁰I 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?

¹¹He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.

¹²He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

⁴My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.

¹⁷For he breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause.

¹⁹Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.

⁷When they took hold of thee by thy hand, thou didst break, and rend all their shoulder: and when they leaned upon thee, thou brakest, and madest all their loins to be at a stand.

²⁶He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers:

¹⁸Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.

¹⁹My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.

³When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;

¹⁰The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

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

⁴⁴And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

⁴Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.

²And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.

³His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.

²⁶I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.

²⁵It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him.

⁴For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.

¹¹Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.

²⁰The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.

¹¹Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.

²³The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:

²⁷Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

¹⁰Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.

¹³He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

¹²If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.

¹³He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.

³²He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

⁵And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

¹⁷For he breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause.

⁷They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:

⁸And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.

³Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.

⁴My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.

⁵He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.

⁷Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.

³⁴And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.

⁵Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah.

²⁷And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.

¹²And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:

⁵Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.

¹⁰The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.

¹⁹He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.

¹⁰All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.

¹⁶For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.

³⁴And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.

³For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.

⁴My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.

⁵By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.

¹⁴As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:

⁷Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.

¹THEN Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly,

²And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

³For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.

⁴Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.

⁵The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.

⁶I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.

⁷When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

⁸They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

⁹But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.

¹⁰¶ And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

⁹For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping,

⁹Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.

³When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.

⁶I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.

⁷Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.

³I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

³The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.

⁸The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

¹⁸If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

¹⁹But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.

⁶My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

⁷Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

⁵If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty;

⁶If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.

⁶Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

¹⁴If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.

²⁰The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.

³⁴For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.

²⁷Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me.

²⁸For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?

⁵Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite?

⁶For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.

⁷Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.

⁸But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; and the honourable man dwelt in it.

⁹Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

¹²Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.

¹³The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.

¹⁵I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.

¹⁷And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.

¹I MADE a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

²For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

³Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?

⁴Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?

⁵If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;

⁶Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.

⁷If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands;

⁸Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.

⁹If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour’s door;

¹⁰Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.

¹¹For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.

¹²For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.

¹³If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me;

¹⁴What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?

¹⁵Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?

¹⁶If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

¹⁷Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;

¹⁸(For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother’s womb;)

¹⁹If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;

²⁰If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;

²¹If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate:

²²Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.

²³For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.

²⁴If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;

²⁵If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much;

²⁶If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;

²⁷And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:

²⁸This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.

²⁹If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:

³⁰Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.

³¹If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.

³²The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller.

³³If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:

³⁴Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?

³⁵Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book.

³⁶Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me.

³⁷I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.

³⁸If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;

³⁹If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:

⁴⁰Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.

⁸But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.

¹⁷All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.

¹⁸Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way;

¹⁹Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.

²⁰If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;

²¹Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.

³O Lord my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands;

⁴If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:)

⁵Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah.

⁸I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.