Job, starting at chapter 16
{16:1} Then Job answered,
{16:2} "I have heard many such things.
You are all miserable comforters!
{16:3} Shall vain words have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
{16:4} I also could speak as you do.
If your soul were in my soul's place,
I could join words together against you,
and shake my head at you,
{16:5} but I would strengthen you with my mouth.
The solace of my lips would relieve you.
{16:6} "Though I speak, my grief is not subsided.
Though I forbear, what am I eased?
{16:7} But now, God, you have surely worn me out.
You have made desolate all my company.
{16:8} You have shriveled me up. This is a witness against me.
My leanness rises up against me.
It testifies to my face.
{16:9} He has torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me.
He has gnashed on me with his teeth.
My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.
{16:10} They have gaped on me with their mouth.
They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully.
They gather themselves together against me.
{16:11} God delivers me to the ungodly,
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
{16:12} I was at ease, and he broke me apart.
Yes, he has taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces.
He has also set me up for his target.
{16:13} His archers surround me.
He splits my kidneys apart, and does not spare.
He pours out my gall on the ground.
{16:14} He breaks me with breach on breach.
He runs on me like a giant.
{16:15} I have sewed sackcloth on my skin,
and have thrust my horn in the dust.
{16:16} My face is red with weeping.
Deep darkness is on my eyelids.
{16:17} Although there is no violence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.
{16:18} "Earth, don't cover my blood.
Let my cry have no place to rest.
{16:19} Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven.
He who vouches for me is on high.
{16:20} My friends scoff at me.
My eyes pour out tears to God,
{16:21} that he would maintain the right of a man with God,
of a son of man with his neighbor!
{16:22} For when a few years are come,
I shall go the way from whence I shall not return.
{17:1} "My spirit is consumed.
My days are extinct,
And the grave is ready for me.
{17:2} Surely there are mockers with me.
My eye dwells on their provocation.
{17:3} "Now give a pledge, be collateral for me with yourself.
Who is there who will strike hands with me?
{17:4} For you have hidden their heart from understanding,
Therefore you shall not exalt them.
{17:5} He who denounces his friends for a prey,
Even the eyes of his children shall fail.
{17:6} "But he has made me a byword of the people.
They spit in my face.
{17:7} My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow.
All my members are as a shadow.
{17:8} Upright men shall be astonished at this.
The innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.
{17:9} Yet shall the righteous hold on his way.
He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.
{17:10} But as for you all, come on now again;
I shall not find a wise man among you.
{17:11} My days are past, my plans are broken off,
as are the thoughts of my heart.
{17:12} They change the night into day,
saying 'The light is near' in the presence of darkness.
{17:13} If I look for Sheol as my house,
if I have spread my couch in the darkness,
{17:14} If I have said to corruption, 'You are my father;'
to the worm, 'My mother,' and 'my sister;'
{17:15} where then is my hope?
as for my hope, who shall see it?
{17:16} Shall it go down with me to the gates of Sheol,
or descend together into the dust?"
{18:1} Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,
{18:2} "How long will you hunt for words?
Consider, and afterwards we will speak.
{18:3} Why are we counted as animals,
which have become unclean in your sight?
{18:4} You who tear yourself in your anger,
shall the earth be forsaken for you?
Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?
{18:5} "Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out,
The spark of his fire shall not shine.
{18:6} The light shall be dark in his tent.
His lamp above him shall be put out.
{18:7} The steps of his strength shall be shortened.
His own counsel shall cast him down.
{18:8} For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
and he wanders into its mesh.
{18:9} A snare will take him by the heel.
A trap will catch him.
{18:10} A noose is hidden for him in the ground,
a trap for him in the way.
{18:11} Terrors shall make him afraid on every side,
and shall chase him at his heels.
{18:12} His strength shall be famished.
Calamity shall be ready at his side.
{18:13} The members of his body shall be devoured.
The firstborn of death shall devour his members.
{18:14} He shall be rooted out of his tent where he trusts.
He shall be brought to the king of terrors.
{18:15} There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his.
Sulfur shall be scattered on his habitation.
{18:16} His roots shall be dried up beneath.
Above shall his branch be cut off.
{18:17} His memory shall perish from the earth.
He shall have no name in the street.
{18:18} He shall be driven from light into darkness,
and chased out of the world.
{18:19} He shall have neither son nor grandson among his people,
nor any remaining where he sojourned.
{18:20} Those who come after shall be astonished at his day,
as those who went before were frightened.
{18:21} Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous.
This is the place of him who doesn't know God."
___
This Bible reading mailing list and web site are paid for by donations
marked "World English Bible project" and payable to:
Rainbow Missions
PO BOX 275
MESA CO 81643-0275
To help support the senior editor, please see http://eBible.org/mpj/
To cancel your free email subscription, please send
email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
unsubscribe bible
in the body of the message OR go to http://ebible.org/subscribe.htm
