Job 17

1 My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, The grave is ready for me.

2 Surely there are mockers with me, And mine eye dwelleth upon their provocation.

3 Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself; Who is there that will strike hands with me?

4 For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: Therefore shalt thou not exalt them.

5 He that denounceth his friends for a prey, Even the eyes of his children shall fail.

6 But he hath made me a byword of the people; And they spit in my face.

7 Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, And all my members are as a shadow.

8 Upright men shall be astonished at this, And the innocent shall stir up himself against the godless.

9 Yet shall the righteous hold on his way, And he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger.

10 But as for you all, come on now again; And I shall not find a wise man among you.

11 My days are past, my purposes are broken off, Even the thoughts of my heart.

12 They change the night into day: The light, say they, is near unto the darkness.

13 If I look for Sheol as my house; If I have spread my couch in the darkness;

14 If I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; To the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister;

15 Where then is my hope? And as for my hope, who shall see it?

16 It shall go down to the bars of Sheol, When once there is rest in the dust.

Job 18

1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,

2 How long will ye hunt for words? Consider, and afterwards we will speak.

3 Wherefore are we counted as beasts, And are become unclean in your sight?

4 Thou that tearest thyself in thine anger, Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?

5 Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, And the spark of his fire shall not shine.

6 The light shall be dark in his tent, And his lamp above him shall be put out.

7 The steps of his strength shall be straitened, And his own counsel shall cast him down.

8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, And he walketh upon the toils.

9 A gin shall take him by the heel, And a snare shall lay hold on him.

10 A noose is hid for him in the ground, And a trap for him in the way.

11 Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, And shall chase him at his heels.

12 His strength shall be hunger-bitten, And calamity shall be ready at his side.

13 The members of his body shall be devoured, Yea, the first-born of death shall devour his members.

14 He shall be rooted out of his tent where he trusteth; And he shall be brought to the king of terrors.

15 There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his: Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.

16 His roots shall be dried up beneath, And above shall his branch be cut off.

17 His remembrance shall perish from the earth, And he shall have no name in the street.

18 He shall be driven from light into darkness, And chased out of the world.

19 He shall have neither son nor son’s son among his people, Nor any remaining where he sojourned.

20 They that come after shall be astonished at his day, As they that went before were affrighted.

21 Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, And this is the place of him that knoweth not God.

Job 19

1 Then Job answered and said,

2 How long will ye vex my soul, And break me in pieces with words?

3 These ten times have ye reproached me: Ye are not ashamed that ye deal hardly with me.

4 And be it indeed that I have erred, Mine error remaineth with myself.

5 If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, And plead against me my reproach;

6 Know now that God hath subverted me in my cause, And hath 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 hath walled up my way that I cannot pass, And hath set darkness in my paths.

9 He hath stripped me of my glory, And taken the crown from my head.

10 He hath broken me down on every side, and I am gone; And my hope hath he plucked up like a tree.

11 He hath also kindled his wrath against me, And he counteth me unto him as one of his adversaries.

12 His troops come on together, And cast up their way against me, And encamp round about my tent.

13 He hath put my brethren far from me, And mine 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 unto my servant, and he giveth me no answer, Though I entreat him with my mouth.

17 My breath is strange to my wife, And my supplication to the children of mine 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 cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

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

22 Why do ye persecute me as God, 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 graven in the rock for ever!

25 But as for me I know that my Redeemer liveth, 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 God;

27 Whom I, even I, shall see, on my side, And mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger. My heart is consumed within me.

28 If ye say, How we will persecute him! And that the root of the matter is found in me;

29 Be ye afraid of the sword: For wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, That ye may know there is a judgment.