Job 3:11–26

³¶ Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb:

¹⁸Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!

¹⁹I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

¹⁴Give them, O Lord: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

¹⁰¶ Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.

¹³For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

¹⁵My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

¹⁶Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

⁹But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.

¹⁰I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly.

⁸As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

⁶By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.

³And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.

¹²For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees.

²³And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph’s knees.

⁴And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

⁵None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.

¹⁰Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.

¹⁰But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?

¹¹As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:

¹²So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

¹³They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.

³¶ If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.

⁴For he cometh in with vanity, and departeth in darkness, and his name shall be covered with darkness.

⁵Moreover he hath not seen the sun, nor known any thing: this hath more rest than the other.

²²A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.

¹³If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.

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

²³One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.

²¹And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.

⁸The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not.

⁹As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.

¹⁰He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.

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

¹⁰All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?

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.

¹²How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

¹³For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

¹⁵Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

¹⁶They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

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.

⁴⁸What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.

⁴³And Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead.

⁸There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.

²⁰When I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, with the people of old time, and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, in places desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I shall set glory in the land of the living;

¹⁸Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches; in the wine of Helbon, and white wool.

¹⁹Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market.

²⁰Dedan was thy merchant in precious clothes for chariots.

²¹Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these were they thy merchants.

²²The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold.

²³Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants.

²⁴These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise.

²⁵The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas.

²⁶¶ Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas.

²⁷Thy riches, and thy fairs, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war, that are in thee, and in all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of thy ruin.

²⁸The suburbs shall shake at the sound of the cry of thy pilots.

²⁹And all that handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea, shall come down from their ships, they shall stand upon the land;

³⁰And shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:

³¹And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing.

³²And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for thee, and lament over thee, saying, What city is like Tyrus, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea?

⁸¶ Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!

¹²And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

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

²³For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.

⁶They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;

⁷None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:

⁸(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)

⁹That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.

¹⁰For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.

¹⁰So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.

²⁷And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycomore trees that are in the vale, for abundance.

²⁵Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver.

¹⁸Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

⁷Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots:

²¹He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty.

¹⁶Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay;

¹⁷He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver.

¹⁸And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more.

³And Tyrus did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets.

⁸As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

³¶ If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.

⁸And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

¹³And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

¹⁶They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

¹¹Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

⁹There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

¹THE righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.

²He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.

¹³O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

⁶Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;

⁷And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,

⁴And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

²⁸And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

⁵Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me.

⁶And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.

⁷Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah.

⁸I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.

⁸(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

⁷He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver.

¹⁵¶ Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants?

¹⁶There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us, Make brick: and, behold, thy servants are beaten; but the fault is in thine own people.

¹⁷But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord.

¹⁸Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.

¹⁹And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case, after it was said, Ye shall not minish ought from your bricks of your daily task.

⁶And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying,

⁷Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves.

⁸And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.

³And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,

⁴¶ That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!

³And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.

⁷Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

⁸There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.

²³For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.

⁵Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:

²⁷And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

²²And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

²³And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

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.

¹⁵But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.

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.

¹⁸Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself.

¹⁹He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.

²⁰Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.

²Both low and high, rich and poor, together.

⁶They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;

⁷None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:

⁸(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)

⁹That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.

¹⁰For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.

¹⁸Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

¹⁵So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life.

¹⁶I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.

¹⁰And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.

⁶Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.

²⁷And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet: but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her: and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me.

¹⁶Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.

³⁰To bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.

⁹Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!

²⁸He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.

⁶And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

⁴If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;

⁴¶ But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.

³Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.

⁸And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

¹⁵And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.

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

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

²⁷Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?

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

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

¹²His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.

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

⁸And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.

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.

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

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

³My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?

⁴When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.

⁵Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure.

⁸I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.

¹¹We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

²⁰So that his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat.

⁷The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat.

¹⁹How long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?

⁸Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

¹MY God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

²O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

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

⁵And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.

¹⁵Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.

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

¹⁴Then thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me through visions:

⁹Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?

¹¹Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name’s sake: for thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.