Job 16

1 Then Job answered and said:
2 I have heard this sort of thing many times. Wearisome comforters are you all!
3 Is there no end to windy words? Or what sickness have you that you speak on?
4 I also could talk as you do, were you in my place. I could declaim over you, or wag my head at you;
5 I could strengthen you with talk, or shake my head with silent lips.
6 If I speak, this pain I have will not be checked; if I leave off, it will not depart from me.
7 But now that I am exhausted and stunned, all my company has closed in on me.
8 As a witness there rises up my traducer, speaking openly against me;
9 I am the prey his wrath assails, he gnashes his teeth against me. My enemies lord it over me;
10 their mouths are agape to bite me. They smite me on the cheek insultingly; they are all enlisted against me.
11 God has given me over to the impious; into the clutches of the wicked he has cast me.
12 I was in peace, but he dislodged me; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces. He has set me up for a target;
13 his arrows strike me from all directions, He pierces my sides without mercy, he pours out my gall upon the ground.
14 He pierces me with thrust upon thrust; he attacks me like a warrior.
15 I have fastened sackcloth over my skin, and have laid my brow in the dust.
16 My face is inflamed with weeping and there is darkness over my eyes,
17 Although my hands are free from violence, and my prayer is sincere.
18 O earth, cover not my blood, nor let my outcry come to rest!
19 Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my spokesman is on high.
20 My friends it is who wrong me; before God my eyes drop tears,
21 That he may do justice for a mortal in his presence and decide between a man and his neighbor.
22 For my years are numbered now, and I am on a journey from which I shall not return.

Job 17

1 My spirit is broken, my lamp of life extinguished; my burial is at hand.
2 I am indeed mocked, and, as their provocation mounts, my eyes grow dim.
3 Grant me one to offer you a pledge on my behalf: who is there that will give surety for me?
4 You darken their minds to knowledge; therefore they do not understand.
5 My lot is described as evil,
6 and I am made a byword of the people; their object lesson I have become.
7 My eye has grown blind with anguish, and all my frame is shrunken to a shadow.
8 Upright men are astonished at this, and the innocent aroused against the wicked.
9 Yet the righteous shall hold to his way, and he who has clean hands increase in strength.
10 But turn now, and come on again; for I shall not find a wise man among you!
11 My days are passed away, my plans are at an end, the cherished purposes of my heart.
12 Such men change the night into day; where there is darkness they talk of approaching light.
13 If I look for the nether world as my dwelling, if I spread my couch in the darkness,
14 If I must call corruption my father, and the maggot my mother and my sister,
15 Where then is my hope, and my prosperity, who shall see?
16 Will they descend with me into the nether world? Shall we go down together into the dust?

Job 18

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied and said:
2 When will you put an end to words? Reflect, and then we can have discussion.
3 Why are we accounted like the beasts, their equals in your sight?
4 You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be neglected on your account (or the rock be moved out of its place)?
5 Truly, the light of the wicked is extinguished; no flame brightens his hearth.
6 The light is darkened in his tent; in spite of him, his lamp goes out.
7 His vigorous steps are hemmed in, and his own counsel casts him down.
8 For he rushes headlong into a net, and he wanders into a pitfall.
9 A trap seizes him by the heel, and a snare lays hold of him.
10 A noose for him is hid on the ground, and the toils for him on the way.
11 On every side terrors affright him; they harry him at each step.
12 Disaster is ready at his side,
13 the first-born of death consumes his limbs.
14 Fiery destruction lodges in his tent, and marches him off to the king of terrors. He is plucked from the security of his tent;
15 over his abode brimstone is scattered.
16 Below, his roots dry up, and above, his branches wither.
17 His memory perishes from the land, and he has no name on the earth.
18 He is driven from light into darkness, and banished out of the world.
19 He has neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any survior where once he dwelt.
20 They who come after shall be appalled at his fate; they who went before are struck with horror.
21 So is it then with the dwelling of the impious man, and such is the place of him who knows not God!

Job 19

1 Then Job answered and said:
2 How long will you vex my soul, grind me down with words?
3 These ten times you have reviled me, have assailed me without shame!
4 Be it indeed that I am at fault and that my fault remains with me,
5 Even so, if you would vaunt yourselves against me and cast up to me any reproach,
6 Know then that God has dealt unfairly with me, and compassed me round with his net.
7 If I cry out Injustice! I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no redress.
8 He has barred my way and I cannot pass; he has veiled my path in darkness;
9 He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the diadem from my brow.
10 He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; my hope he has uprooted like a tree.
11 His wrath he has kindled against me; he counts me among his enemies.
12 His troops advance as one man; they build up their road to attack me, and they encamp around my tent.
13 My brethren have withdrawn from me, and my friends are wholly estranged.
14 My kinsfolk and companions neglect me, and my guests have forgotten me.
15 Even my handmaids treat me as a stranger; I am an alien in their sight.
16 I call my servant, but he gives no answer, though in my speech I plead with him.
17 My breath is abhorred by my wife; I am loathsome to the men of my family.
18 The young children, too, despise me; when I appear, they speak against me.
19 All my intimate friends hold me in horror; those whom I loved have turned against me!
20 My bones cleave to my skin, and I have escaped with my flesh between my teeth.
21 Pity me, pity me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me!
22 Why do you hound me as though you were divine, and insatiably prey upon me?
23 Oh, would that my words were written down! Would that they were inscribed in a record:
24 That with an iron chisel and with lead they were cut in the rock forever!
25 But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives, and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust;
26 And from my flesh I shall see God; my inmost being is consumed with longing.
27 Whom I myself shall see: my own eyes, not another's, shall behold him,
28 But you who say, How shall we persecute him, seeing that the root of the matter is found in him?
29 Be afraid of the sword for yourselves, for these crimes deserve the sword; that you may know that there is a judgment.

Job 20

1 Then Zophar the Naamathite spoke and said:
2 and because of this I am disturbed. So now my thoughts provide me with an answer, and from my understanding a spirit gives me a reply.
3 A rebuke which puts me to shame I hear,
4 Do you not know this from olden time, since man was placed upon the earth,
5 That the triumph of the wicked is short and the joy of the impious but for a moment?
6 Though his pride mount up to the heavens and his head reach to the clouds,
7 Yet he perishes forever like the fuel of his fire, and the onlookers say, Where is he?
8 Like a dream he takes flight and is not found again; he fades away like a vision of the night.
9 The eye which saw him does so no more; nor shall his dwelling again behold him.
10 and his hands shall yield up his riches.
11 Though his frame is full of youthful vigor, this shall lie with him in the dust.
12 Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, and he hides it under his tongue,
13 Though he retains it and will not let it go but keeps it still within his mouth,
14 Yet in his stomach the food shall turn; it shall be venom of asps inside him.
15 The riches he swallowed he shall disgorge; God shall compel his belly to disown them.
16 The poison of asps he shall drink in; the viper's fangs shall slay him.
17 He shall see no streams of oil, no torrents of honey or milk.
18 Restoring his gains, he shall not enjoy them; though his wealth increases, he shall not rejoice.
19 Because he has oppressed the poor, and stolen a patrimony he had not built up,
20 Though he has known no quiet in his greed, his treasures shall not save him.
21 Therefore his prosperity shall not endure,
22 When he abounds to overflowing, he shall be brought into straits, and nought shall be left of his goods.
23 God shall send against him the fury of his wrath and rain down his missiles of war upon him.
24 Should he escape the iron weapon, the bow of bronze shall pierce him through;
25 The dart shall come out of his back; terrors shall fall upon him.
26 Complete darkness is in store for him; the fire which shall consume him needs not to be fanned.
27 The heavens shall reveal his guilt, and the earth shall rise up against him.
28 The flood shall sweep away his house with the waters that run off in the day of God's anger.
29 This is the portion of a wicked man, and the heritage appointed him by God.

Job 21

1 Then Job said in reply:
2 At least listen to my words, and let that be the consolation you offer.
3 Bear with me while I speak; and after I have spoken, you can mock!
4 Is my complaint toward man? And why should I not be impatient?
5 Look at me and be astonished, put your hands over your mouths.
6 When I think of it, I am dismayed, and horror takes hold on my flesh.
7 Why do the wicked survive, grow old, become mighty in power?
8 Their progeny is secure in their sight; they see before them their kinsfolk and their offspring.
9 Their homes are safe and without fear, nor is the scourge of God upon them.
10 Their bulls gender without fail; their cows calve and do not miscarry.
11 These folk have infants numerous as lambs, and their children dance.
12 They sing to the timbrel and harp, and make merry to the sound of the flute.
13 They live out their days in prosperity, and tranquilly go down to the nether world.
14 Yet they say to God, Depart from us, for we have no wish to learn your ways!
15 1 What is the Almighty that we should serve him? And what gain shall we have if we pray to him?
16 If their happiness is not in their own hands and if the counsel of the wicked is repulsive to God,
17 How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does destruction come upon them, the portion he allots in his anger?
18 Let them be like straw before the wind, and like chaff which the storm snatches away!
19 May God not store up the man's misery for his children; let him requite the man himself so that he feels it,
20 Let his own eyes see the calamity, and the wrath of the Almighty let him drink!
21 For what interest has he in his family after him, when the number of his months is finished?
22 Can anyone teach God knowledge, seeing that he judges those on high?
23 One dies in his full vigor, wholly at ease and content;
24 His figure is full and nourished, and his bones are rich in marrow.
25 Another dies in bitterness of soul, having never tasted happiness.
26 Alike they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them both.
27 Behold, I know your thoughts, and the arguments you rehearse against me.
28 For you say, Where is the house of the magnate, and where the dwelling place of the wicked?
29 Have you not asked the wayfarers and do you not recognize their monuments?
30 Nay, the evil man is spared calamity when it comes;
31 Who will charge him with his conduct to his face, and for what he has done who will repay him?
32 2)and on the day he is carried to the grave
33 Sweet to him are the clods of the valley, and over him the funeral mound keeps watch, While all the line of mankind follows him, and the countless others who have gone before.
34 How then can you offer me vain comfort, while in your answers perfidy remains?