Job 6:1–6

¹THEN Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,

²Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.

⁶Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.

⁵But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.

³A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool’s wrath is heavier than them both.

²Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.

¹⁹Teach us what we shall say unto him; for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness.

²⁰Shall it be told him that I speak? if a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up.

²⁸¶ Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

⁵Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

⁴Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

²For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.

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

¹⁵I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.

¹⁶Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.

¹⁴The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?

¹²I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.

¹³His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.

¹⁴He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.

³⁴And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

⁷Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.

¹⁷For he breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause.

¹²He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

¹³He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

¹¹Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

²³I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.

²⁴They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.

⁴²I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.

²⁰His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

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

³³And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;

³⁴And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.

¹⁴Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.

¹²Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them.

⁵Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under thee.

¹³He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.

⁶And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.

¹⁸How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

¹⁹O Lord, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.

²⁰The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

¹⁴He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;

¹AS the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

³For the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat.

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

¹¹Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat?

³⁰Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things?

¹³And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.

³⁴¶ Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?

⁴For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

⁵And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

²I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.

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

¹⁰³How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!