Job 21:22–27

³⁴For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counseller?

¹⁶For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

¹³Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counseller hath taught him?

¹⁴With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?

³Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

⁴For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

⁸¶ If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.

²²It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

²³That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

⁹Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?

¹⁵Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

¹⁷Shall even he that hateth right govern? and wilt thou condemn him that is most just?

¹⁸Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked? and to princes, Ye are ungodly?

¹⁹How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor? for they all are the work of his hands.

¹¹Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?

²²Behold, God exalteth by his power: who teacheth like him?

¹⁸Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:

²Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.

⁶And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

⁵Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high,

⁶Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth!

¹GOD standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.

¹AND I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

²And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

³And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

¹²And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

¹³And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

¹⁴And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

¹⁵And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

²²In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.

²³When 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.

¹⁹And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

²⁰But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

²¹So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

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

⁴For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.

⁵They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.

⁸It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.

²⁷Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.

¹⁰They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.

¹⁶Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment:

¹⁷That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.

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

¹²And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.

⁸For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy father and his men, that they be mighty men, and they be chafed in their minds, as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field: and thy father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.

²A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

¹⁸Son of man, eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy water with trembling and with carefulness;

¹⁵What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁶O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live.

¹⁷Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

¹MY soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

²³When 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.

²⁰Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;

¹⁸He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness.

¹⁰The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy.

²All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

¹¹Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

¹¹His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.

¹⁸There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.

¹⁹The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.

¹⁴I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

²⁶And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

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.

¹⁴Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.

²²But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts?

⁸⁶All thy commandments are faithful: they persecute me wrongfully; help thou me.

¹⁹For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.

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

²¹A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.

²²He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.

²³He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.

²⁴Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.

²⁵For he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty.

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

²⁷Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.

²⁸And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.

²⁹He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth.

³⁰He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.

³¹Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.

³²It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.

³³He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.

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

³⁵They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.

²⁹This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.

⁵That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?

³Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.

⁸Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.

⁹By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.

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

¹¹The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion’s whelps are scattered abroad.

⁷¶ And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.

³I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation.

⁴His children are far from safety, and they are crushed in the gate, neither is there any to deliver them.

⁵Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh it even out of the thorns, and the robber swalloweth up their substance.

³Doth God pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert justice?

⁴If thy children have sinned against him, and he have cast them away for their transgression;

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.

⁴They run and prepare themselves without my fault: awake to help me, and behold.