Job 6:4–13

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!

¹²And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.

²⁷And say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.

³I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.

¹⁸Son of man, eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy water with trembling and with carefulness;

¹⁹And say unto the people of the land, Thus saith the Lord God of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel; They shall eat their bread with carefulness, and drink their water with astonishment, that her land may be desolate from all that is therein, because of the violence of all them that dwell therein.

¹⁴Then said I, Ah Lord God! behold, my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.

¹⁶Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment:

²⁴For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.

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

⁸¹My soul fainteth for thy salvation: but I hope in thy word.

¹⁴I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

¹⁵And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?

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

¹¹What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?

¹²Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?

¹³Is not my help in me? and is wisdom driven quite from me?

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.

¹⁰Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

¹¹For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.

¹²¶ Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.

¹³Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.

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.

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.

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!

²¹Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.

²⁰Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;

²¹Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;

²²Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

¹⁴I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.

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.

⁴For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

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

¹²Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.

¹⁵For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

²Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.

⁹I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest.

¹⁰I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

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

¹⁸Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.

²There is none holy as the Lord: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God.

⁴For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

⁵And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

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,

²⁷For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

²⁰The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.

¹²¶ Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.

³God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.

⁹I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city.

¹¹Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.

¹²Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:

³³The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him.

²²Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.

²²Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?

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

¹³With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.

³⁰The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment.

⁷And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;

⁸And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

³²He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

¹⁴For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

¹⁵As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.

¹⁶For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

¹MY breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.

²³He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.

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.

²⁰Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,

²⁵Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?

²⁸And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth eaten.

¹⁴I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

¹⁵And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?

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

⁴As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?

⁵My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome.

⁶My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

⁷O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good.

⁵Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.

⁶In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.

⁷For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.

⁸Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.

⁹For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.

¹⁰The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

¹⁸His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.

²⁴His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.

¹²For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.

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

²No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you.

³But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: yea, who knoweth not such things as these?

²What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.

²⁸But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?

⁴But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.