Job 19:8–17

²³Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?

⁷He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.

⁹He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.

¹⁹The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.

⁸Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

⁶¶ Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.

¹⁰¶ Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.

¹⁶Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.

¹²Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the Lord.

²⁶When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.

¹²¶ Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

⁷And when they cried unto the Lord, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt: and ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season.

⁴⁴Thou hast made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground.

⁷When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!

⁸The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up.

⁹The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.

¹⁰The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.

¹¹When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:

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.

¹⁷He leadeth counsellers away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools.

¹BUT now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.

¹⁶The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!

³⁹Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant: thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.

¹¹As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.

⁶But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.

²⁰My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.

²¹Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.

¹⁶Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;

¹⁷For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.

²⁰The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.

³⁵I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.

³⁶Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.

⁸We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

⁹Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

¹⁴Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.

¹³¶ And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:

¹⁴And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:

¹⁵And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

¹⁶While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

¹⁷While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

¹⁸While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:

¹⁹And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

¹¹My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.

¹⁵And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?

⁷¶ So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.

¹¹What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?

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

¹³So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite’s hope shall perish:

¹⁴Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider’s web.

¹⁵He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure.

¹⁶He is green before the sun, and his branch shooteth forth in his garden.

¹⁷His roots are wrapped about the heap, and seeth the place of stones.

¹⁸If he destroy him from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.

⁵The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

⁶And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.

¹¹My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.

¹³But unto thee have I cried, O Lord; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.

¹⁴Lord, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?

¹⁵I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.

¹⁶Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.

¹⁷They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.

¹⁸Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.

²⁴Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?

⁹He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

¹⁰Behold, he findeth occasions against me, he counteth me for his enemy,

²²For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

⁵The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

⁴⁶How long, Lord? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?

⁷For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.

¹²Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.

¹³His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.

¹¹God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.

⁵¶ O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.

⁶I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

²³But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.

⁸Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

⁸I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.

¹⁸Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness.

¹¹I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me.

²⁰Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

¹⁶At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.

⁷But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.

²¹For now ye are nothing; ye see my casting down, and are afraid.

²²Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance?

²³Or, Deliver me from the enemy’s hand? or, Redeem me from the hand of the mighty?

⁵⁶But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.

¹¹My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.

¹¹My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.

²³And the counsel of Ahithophel, which he counselled in those days, was as if a man had inquired at the oracle of God: so was all the counsel of Ahithophel both with David and with Absalom.

¹⁰¶ For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

¹⁸¶ I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.

²¹And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.

⁵¶ Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.

⁶For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.

²⁴A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

¹²For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:

¹³But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.

¹⁴We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.

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.

³Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.

¹⁵And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

¹⁶While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

¹⁷While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

¹⁹And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

⁹¶ Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.

¹⁰But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

¹MY breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.