Job 27:8–13

²⁶For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

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

²⁰But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.

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.

⁹But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

¹⁰For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?

¹⁵He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

¹GO to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

²Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.

³Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

¹⁶He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.

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

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

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

²⁵For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?

³⁶For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

³⁷Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

¹³¶ But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

¹²When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.

¹⁵And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

²⁸Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

¹²There they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men.

¹³Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.

⁴Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.

⁴¹They cried, but there was none to save them: even unto the Lord, but he answered them not.

¹⁸Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.

¹⁴And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me.

³Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

¹¹¶ Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.

⁹He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.

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

¹³Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the Lord of hosts:

³¹Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.

²⁵When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:

⁷When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.

²⁶For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God.

²⁷Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows.

⁴Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

¹⁸Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

¹⁷Pray without ceasing.

²A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.

¹⁸Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

¹AND he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

²¹Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

⁴Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.

³⁴When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and inquired early after God.

³⁵And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.

³⁶Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.

¹⁷O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.

¹¹¶ For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,

³Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.

⁴Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.

⁵Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.

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.

²⁰And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house,

⁸But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

⁹Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment.

¹⁰Therefore I said, Hearken to me; I also will shew mine opinion.

³Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?

²How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?

³These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.

³Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.

¹⁴There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men, unto whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked; again, there be wicked men, to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is vanity.

¹FOR all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.

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.

³This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

⁴But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.

⁵O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.

⁶Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.

⁷Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?

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

⁹Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?

²Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?

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

²⁹Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens,

³⁰That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.

²How hast thou helped him that is without power? how savest thou the arm that hath no strength?

³How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom? and how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is?

⁴To whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee?

²⁵How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?

²⁶Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?

²⁷Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, and ye dig a pit for your friend.

²⁸Now therefore be content, look upon me; for it is evident unto you if I lie.

²⁹Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity; yea, return again, my righteousness is in it.

¹⁹Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;

²⁰Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.

²¹There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.

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.

²⁴He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.

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

²⁶All 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.

²⁷The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.

²⁸The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.

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

⁹The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

¹¹Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.

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.

¹³But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.

⁴Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

⁵Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

⁶Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.

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

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.

²²Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:

²³For the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them.

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

⁵For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.