Job 4:1–4

¹THEN answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,

¹¹¶ Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.

¹THEN Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

¹AFTER this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.

²And Job spake, and said,

⁹So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the Lord commanded them: the Lord also accepted Job.

¹BUT Job answered and said,

¹THEN answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,

¹⁸For I am full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth me.

¹⁹Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles.

²⁰I will speak, that I may be refreshed: I will open my lips and answer.

²⁰For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.

¹¹Therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.

⁴For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.

⁵But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all.

⁶Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many.

⁸For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season.

⁹Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.

¹⁰For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

⁹Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

³¶ Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.

¹²Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

⁵But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.

³²But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

²¹The lips of the righteous feed many: but fools die for want of wisdom.

²⁸But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.

²⁹Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

⁴³And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

²²Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life:

¹⁹For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

⁴The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.

⁷The lips of the wise disperse knowledge: but the heart of the foolish doeth not so.

²¹The wise in heart shall be called prudent: and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning.

⁶Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

²²And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy: for the Lord had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.

¹⁴Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.

¹²Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

¹⁸There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.

¹⁴The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.

⁷So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.

⁶Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus;

⁶Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.

³¶ Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.

⁴Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.

²³The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips.

²⁴Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.