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Job 19
Then Job answered and said,
2 How long will you vex my soul,
And break me in pieces with words?
3 These ten times have you reproached me:
You are not ashamed that you deal harshly with me.
4 And be it indeed that I have erred,
My error remains with myself.
5 If indeed you will magnify yourselves against me,
And plead against me my reproach;
6 Know now that Eloah has subverted me in my cause,
And has compassed me with his net.
7 Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard:
I cry for help, but there is no justice.
8 He has walled up my way that I cannot pass,
And has set darkness in my paths.
9 He has stripped me of my glory,
And taken the crown from my head.
10 He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone;
And my hope has he plucked up like a tree.
11 He has also kindled his wrath against me,
And he counts me to him as one of his adversaries.
12 His troops come on together, And cast up their way against me,
And camp all around my tent.
13 He has put my brethren far from me,
And my acquaintance are wholly estranged from me.
14 My kinsfolk have failed,
And my familiar friends have forgotten me.
15 They that dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger:
I am an alien in their sight.
16 I call to my servant, and he gives me no answer,
Though I entreat him with my mouth.
17 My breath is strange to my wife,
And my supplication to children of my own mother.
18 Even young children despise me;
If I arise, they speak against me.
19 All my familiar friends abhor me,
And they whom I loved are turned against me.
20 My bone cleaves to my skin and to my flesh,
And I have escaped with the skin of my teeth.
21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O you my friends;
For the hand of Eloah has touched me.
22 Why do you persecute me as El,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?
23 Oh that my words were now written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
24 That with an iron pen and lead
They were carved in the rock forever!
25 But as for me I know that my Redeemer lives,
And at last he will stand up upon the earth:
26 And after my skin, even this body, is destroyed,
Then without my flesh shall I see Eloah;
27 Whom I, even I, shall see, on my side,
And my eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger.
My heart is consumed within me.
28 If you say, How we will persecute him!
And that the root of the matter is found in me;
29 Be afraid of the sword;
For wrath brings the punishments of the sword,
That you may know there is a judgment.
Job 20
Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
2 Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me,
Even by reason of my haste that is in me.
3 I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame;
And the spirit of my understanding answers me.
4 Know you not this of old time,
Since man was placed upon earth,
5 That the triumphing of the wicked is short,
And the joy of the lawless but for a moment?
6 Though his height mounts up to the heavens,
and his head reaches unto the clouds;
7 Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung:
They that have seen him shall say, Where is He?
8 He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found:
Yes, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
9 The eye which saw him shall see him no more;
Neither shall his place any more behold him.
10 His children shall seek the favor of the poor,
And his hands shall give back his wealth.
11 His bones are full of his youth,
But it shall lie down with him in the dust.
12 Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth,
Though he hides it under his tongue,
13 Though he spares it, and will not let it go,
But keeps it still within his mouth;
14 Yet his food in his bowels is turned,
It is the gall of asps within him.
15 He has swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again;
El will cast them out of his belly.
16 He shall suck the poison of asps:
The viper’s tongue shall kill him.
17 He shall not look upon the rivers,
The flowing streams of honey and butter.
18 That which he labored for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down;
According to the substance that he has gotten, he shall not rejoice.
19 For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor;
He has violently taken away a house, and he shall not build it up.
20 Because he knew no quietness within him,
He shall not save anything of that in which he delights.
21 There was nothing left that he devoured not;
Therefore his prosperity shall not endure.
22 In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits;
The hand of every one that is in misery shall come upon him.
23 When he is about to fill his belly,
Elohim will cast the fierceness of his wrath upon him
And will rain it upon him while he is eating.
24 He shall flee from the iron weapon,
And the bow of bronze shall strike him through.
25 He draws it forth, and it comes out of his body;
Yes, the glittering point comes out of his gall:
Terrors are upon him.
26 All darkness is laid up for his treasures:
A fire not blown by man shall devour him;
It shall consume that which is left in his tent.
27 The heavens shall reveal his iniquity,
And the earth shall rise up against him.
28 The increase of his house shall depart;
His goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.
29 This is the portion of a wicked man from Elohim,
And the heritage appointed to him by El.
Job 21
Then Job answered and said,
2 Hear diligently my speech;
And let this be your consolations.
3 Permit me, and I also will speak;
And after that I have spoken, mock on.
4 As for me, is my complaint to man?
And why should I not be impatient?
5 Mark me, and be astonished,
And lay your hand upon your mouth.
6 Even when I remember I am troubled,
And horror takes hold on my flesh.
7 Why do the wicked live,
Become old, yes, become mighty in power?
8 Their seed is established with them, in their sight,
And their offspring before their eyes.
9 Their houses are safe from fear,
Neither is the rod of Eloah upon them.
10 Their bull genders, and fails not;
Their cow calves, and casts not her calf.
11 They send forth their little ones like a flock,
And their children dance.
12 They sing to the timbrel and harp,
And rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
13 They spend their days in prosperity,
14 And they say to El, Depart from us;
For we desire not the knowledge of your ways.
15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
And what profit should we have, if we pray to him?
16 Lo, their prosperity is not in their hand:
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
17 How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?
That their calamity comes upon them?
That Elohim distributes sorrows in his anger?
18 That they are as stubble before the wind,
And as chaff that the storm carries away?
19 You say, Eloah lays up his iniquity for his children.
Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it:
20 Let his own eyes see his destruction,
And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21 For what does he care for his house after him,
When the number of his months is cut off?
22 Shall any teach El knowledge,
Seeing he judges those that are high?
23 One dies in his full strength,
Being wholly at ease and quiet:
24 His pails are full of milk,
And the marrow of his bones is moistened.
25 And another dies in bitterness of soul,
And never tastes of good.
26 They he down alike in the dust,
And the worm covers them.
27 Behold, I know your thoughts,
And the devices with which you would wrong me.
28 For you say, Where is the house of the prince?
And where is the tent in which the wicked dwelt?
29 Have you not asked wayfaring men?
And do you not know their evidences,
30 That the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity?
That they are led forth to the day of wrath?
31 Who shall declare his way to his face?
And who shall repay him what he has done?
32 Yet shall he be borne to the grave,
And men shall keep watch over the tomb.
33 The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him,
And all men shall draw after him,
As there were innumerable before him.
34 How then comfort you me in vain,
Seeing in your answers there remains only falsehood?