Job 22:8–15

¹⁵The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

¹¹And the men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who were the inhabitants in his city, did as Jezebel had sent unto them, and as it was written in the letters which she had sent unto them.

¹²They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people.

¹³And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him: and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died.

¹⁴Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, Naboth is stoned, and is dead.

¹⁵¶ And it came to pass, when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned, and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give thee for money: for Naboth is not alive, but dead.

³The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counseller, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.

⁸Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?

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.

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.

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?

³¶ That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.

⁸The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.

⁷In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.

²¹He evil entreateth the barren that beareth not: and doeth not good to the widow.

³They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

²To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!

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

¹⁹Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.

²¹¶ Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

²²¶ Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.

²³If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;

²⁴And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.

²²Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong, and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand.

¹⁷Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

²³Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

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.

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;)

³And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.

⁴And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;

⁵Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

⁵And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.

¹⁵Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.

¹⁷For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the Lord upholdeth the righteous.

⁶They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.

²¹Withdraw thine hand far from me: and let not thy dread make me afraid.

⁸For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.

⁹The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him.

¹⁰The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.

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.

³For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

⁶Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.

²⁷When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

⁶Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.

²⁵Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh.

²⁶For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.

⁵⁴Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.

¹SAVE me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.

²I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

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.

⁸He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

⁴Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:

⁵Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.

²²And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.

¹⁸He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.

⁶The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.

³⁴Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee?

¹⁴They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night.

²A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

³A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.

²He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.

¹²But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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

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

²Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.

¹THUS saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?

⁸It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?

³When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

⁴What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

¹⁵For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

³But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.

¹⁶The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.

¹²Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth.

¹¹He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.

⁹Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not.

¹¹And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?

¹⁵Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?

⁷Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: for who, say they, doth hear?

⁷Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.

⁸Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise?

⁹He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?

⁵They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?

¹²And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil.

²Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.

¹¹If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.

¹²Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

¹⁴From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.

²⁴Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.

⁹He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it.

²²There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.

²For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.

³Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.

¹O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.

²Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.

²⁶And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.

²⁷They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

¹¹The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.

¹²And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

¹³And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

⁵¶ And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.