Job 40:4–9

³²If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth.

⁹The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.

⁵Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.

⁶Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

⁶And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.

²⁷And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:

¹⁹And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel?

¹⁵This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

¹⁰I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.

⁵¶ Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

¹⁸I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,

¹⁹And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

¹³And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

⁸When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

¹⁶¶ The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.

⁹I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.

¹³Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.

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.

¹⁰¶ And David’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.

⁵We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

⁷O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.

¹⁵O Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this.

²⁰But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

⁶All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

⁶But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

²¹O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!

⁴I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.

⁵I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.

⁶Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.

⁷There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.

³⁷I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.

³¹Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.

³²For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment.

³³Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.

³⁴Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me:

³⁵Then would I speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me.

³³Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly:

⁴Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

⁵Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

¹⁴For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.

¹¹God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.

¹⁵Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge.

³If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.

¹⁰And the king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of, and saved himself there, not once nor twice.

¹⁸¶ I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God.

¹⁹Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.

³¹Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more:

³²That which I see not teach thou me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more.

¹⁹Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

¹THEN the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,

¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

¹¹Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

¹²Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

¹⁸For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,

¹⁹And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:

²⁰(For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:

³Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.

⁴He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.

³Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.

⁴Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.

³Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!

⁴I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.

²²Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me.

⁴God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

¹⁸¶ And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.

²Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram: against Job was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God.

²⁷For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

³Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?

⁵For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment.

⁶Should I lie against my right? my wound is incurable without transgression.

⁴Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

¹⁵Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.

¹⁷And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

²As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;

³All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;

⁴My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.

⁵God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.

⁶My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

²Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s?

³For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?

¹⁸For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.

⁴After it a voice roareth: he thundereth with the voice of his excellency; and he will not stay them when his voice is heard.

⁵God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.

¹³Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.

²²Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?

⁶Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.

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?

⁶Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.

¹²Behold, in this thou art not just: I will answer thee, that God is greater than man.

¹³Why dost thou strive against him? for he giveth not account of any of his matters.

⁴He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?

³The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters.

³My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,

⁴Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.

⁵Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

⁶Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.

⁷And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.

⁸Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.

⁹I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.

¹⁰Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm.