Job 7:11–21

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

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

¹MY soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁵What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.

¹⁷Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

²⁵And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure.

²⁶Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?

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.

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.

²⁸Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me?

²¹¶ And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.

¹⁵If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;

¹³Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.

⁶Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?

³Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.

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

⁴⁴And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

³⁷And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.

³⁸Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.

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

²Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers.

³Thus saith the Lord God; I will therefore spread out my net over thee with a company of many people; and they shall bring thee up in my net.

⁶Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;

⁷When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

⁸Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?

⁹When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,

¹⁰And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,

¹¹And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?

¹⁷What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?

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

¹CANST thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?

²Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?

³Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee?

⁴Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?

⁵Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?

⁶Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants?

⁷Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?

⁸Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.

⁹Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?

¹⁰None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?

¹¹Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.

¹²I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion.

¹³Who can discover the face of his garment? or who can come to him with his double bridle?

¹⁴Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about.

¹⁵His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal.

¹⁶One is so near to another, that no air can come between them.

¹⁷They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered.

¹⁸By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

¹⁹Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.

²⁰Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.

²¹His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.

²²In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him.

²³The flakes of his flesh are joined together: they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved.

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

²⁵When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves.

²⁶The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.

²⁷He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.

²⁸The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble.

²⁹Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.

³⁰Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire.

³¹He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.

³²He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary.

³³Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear.

³⁴He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.

⁶I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.

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

³So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.

⁴When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.

²⁷If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself:

²⁸I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent.

¹AND in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him.

⁵¶ And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison.

⁶And Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them, and, behold, they were sad.

⁷And he asked Pharaoh’s officers that were with him in the ward of his lord’s house, saying, Wherefore look ye so sadly to day?

⁸And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled; and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dream; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh.

¹³And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.

¹⁴And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host.

¹⁹¶ When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.

²³¶ And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.

⁵And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.

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.

¹MY soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

⁶Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.

²¹Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life.

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

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

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 spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.

⁹Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.

¹¹¶ Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what is man the better?

¹²For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?

⁴⁶And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do 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?

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

⁴Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.

¹⁰Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.

³³Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.

⁶But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?

⁴What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

³Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him!

¹⁴If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath;

¹⁵All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.

¹²Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?

¹⁴After whom is the king of Israel come out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea.

⁷That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

¹²Mine age is departed, and is removed from me as a shepherd’s tent: I have cut off like a weaver my life: he will cut me off with pining sickness: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.

¹³I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.

⁷Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?

¹⁰Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.

¹⁶Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;

⁵Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

¹AND it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.

¹⁴They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.

³And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?

⁹And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.

³⁴Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them.

¹⁸He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness.

⁶Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.

¹HOW long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?

²How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?

³Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;

³My soul is also sore vexed: but thou, O Lord, how long?

³Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?

¹⁰And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

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

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

¹¹Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

¹²Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?

⁶Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast.

²⁶For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.

¹⁶For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?

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.

⁵Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite?

³³If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:

²⁷He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not;

⁹I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me.

⁶If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?

⁴For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.

²⁹If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?

³⁰If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;

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

⁶Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.

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

⁴O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?

²And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

¹⁴If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.

⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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

⁹¶ Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.

²⁰Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?

²¹Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

²²But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.

⁵And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.

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.

²Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.

¹⁹Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

⁹Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?

²³How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.

²⁴Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?

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

³²Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb.

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

¹³For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,

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

²⁹¶ The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

⁴²We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.

⁴³Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.

⁴⁴Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.

¹⁸Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.

¹⁹He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

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

³⁶Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.

¹⁴Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.