all sorrowful comforters.

will the loose words have no end? Or what makes you so bold, so to speak?

I could speak as you do. Would to God that your soul were in my place! I would also sit with words upon you, and so shake my head over you.

I would strengthen you with my mouth, and comfort you with my lips.

But if I speak, my grief spareth not me: if I tarry, it shall not depart from me.

But now he hath wearied me, and hath destroyed all that I am.

He hath made me frown, and hath testified against me: and mine adversary hath rebelled against me, and answered against me.

His wrath is sore, and he that is angry with me gnasheth his teeth at me: mine adversary gleameth upon me with his eyes.

They have opened their mouths against me, and have smitten me shamefully on my cheeks; they have burned their courage together against me.

God hath delivered me up to the wicked, and delivered me into the hands of the wicked.

I was rich, but he hath brought me to nought; he hath taken me by the neck, and crushed me, and set me up for his purpose:

He hath compassed me about with his protectors; he hath cleft my kidneys, and not spared them; he hath poured out my gall upon the earth;

He hath made me one wound upon another; he hath run upon me like a mighty man.

I have sewed sackcloth about my skin, and have laid my horn in the dust.

My face is swollen with weeping, and my eyelids are darkened, 17. Though there be no iniquity in mine hand, and my prayer be pure.

O earth, cover not my blood, and let not my cry find room.

Behold also, my witness is in heaven; and he that knoweth me is on high.

My friends are my mockers: but mine eye doth water unto GOD.

If a man could be right with God as a man’s child with his friend!

But the appointed years are come, and I go away by the way which I shall not return.
(Job)
Chapter 17
Job goes on to recount his misery and innocence.

My breath is weak, and my days are cut short; the grave is come.

No man is deceived of me, neither doth mine eye abide in grief because of it.

Whether thou wilt have a surety for me, who will pledge for me?

Thou hast hid the understanding of their hearts: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.

He shall praise the spoil of his friends, but the eyes of his children shall fail.

He hath made me a proverb among men, and must be a wonder among them.

My form is darkened with grief, and all my limbs are as a shadow.

The righteous shall see evil of it, and the innocent shall sit down against the hypocrites.

The righteous shall keep his way, and he of clean hands shall be strong.

Come now, all of you, and come; for I will not find a wise man among you.

My days are passed away, my attempts are cut off, which have possessed my heart, 12. And have made the night day, and the day night.

Though I tarry long, yet is hell my house, and in darkness is my bed made.

the decay I call my father, and the worms my mother and my sister.

What shall I wait for? and who shall respect my hope?

Down into hell shall it go, and shall lie with me in the dust.
(Job)
Chapter 18
Bildad mingles Job with the wicked.

Then answered Bildad of Suah, and said:

When will you put an end to this speech? Mark you, after this we will talk.

Why are we esteemed as cattle, and are so unclean in your sight?

Wilt thou burst with wickedness? Thinkest thou that for thy sake the earth shall be forsaken, and the rock removed from her place?

Also the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.

The light shall be darkened in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out upon him.

The approaches of his substance shall be narrow, and his stroke shall cut him down.

For his feet are bound in snares, and he walketh in the net.

The rope shall hold his heels, and the foolish shall catch him.

His snare is laid in the earth, and his trap upon his walk.

Around and around shall he be terrified with sudden fear, that he shall not know whither to go out.

Hunger shall be his possession, and calamity shall be prepared for him, and shall cleave unto him.

The strength of his skin shall be consumed, and his strength shall the prince of death devour.

His hope shall be plucked out of his tabernacle, and they shall drive him to the king of terrors.

Nothing shall be left in his tabernacle: brimstone shall be sprinkled upon his tabernacle.

From beneath shall his roots wither, and from above shall his harvest be cut off.

His memory shall perish in the land, and shall have no name in the street.

he shall be cast out from the light into darkness, and shall be cast out from the face of the earth.

He shall have no children, neither shall he have any nephews among his people: there shall none remain unto him in his goods.

They that come after him shall be astonished at his day: and they that are before him shall fear.

This is the dwelling place of the unrighteous, and this is the place of him that esteemeth not God.
(Job)
Chapter 19
Job speaks of his misery and his comfort from the resurrection.

Job answered and said:

Why do ye trouble my soul, and torment me with words?

Ye have now heard me ten times, and are not ashamed that ye compass me about thus.

If I am wrong, I am wrong.

But ye truly exalt yourselves against me, and reproach me to my shame.

Behold, God hath wronged me once, and hath compassed me about with his snare.

Behold, though I cry for iniquity, yet am I not heard; I cry, and there is no justice.

He hath hedged up my way, that I should not pass over: he hath put darkness in my path.

He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from off my head.

He hath broken me over and over, and let me go, and plucked up my hope like a tree.

His wrath is kindled against me, and he esteemeth me his enemy.

His men of war came together, and paved their way over me, and encamped round about my tabernacle.

He hath put my brethren far from me, and my kinsmen are strangers unto me.

My neighbours have withdrawn themselves, and my friends have forgotten me.

My household and my handmaidens think me a stranger: I am become unknown in their sight.

I called unto my servant, and he answered me not: I besought him with my own mouth.

My wife is a stranger when I call unto her: I beseech the children of my womb.

Even the young children give no heed unto me: if I sit down against them, they give me evil words.

All my faithful have abhorred me: and they whom I have loved have turned against me.

My bones cleave to my skin and my flesh, and my teeth cannot be covered with my skin.

Have mercy upon me, have mercy upon me, ye my friends: for the hand of GOD hath touched me.

Why persecutest thou me as well as God, and canst not be satisfied with my flesh?

Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were written in a book!

would be hewn with an iron stylus upon lead, and into a rock for everlasting remembrance!

But I know that my Redeemer liveth; and he shall raise me up from the earth afterward; 26. And afterward I will be surrounded with this skin of mine, and I will see God in my flesh.

I will see him, and mine eyes shall behold him, and no stranger. My kidneys are consumed in my bosom.

For ye say, How shall we pursue him, and find a cause unto him?

Fear the sword: for the sword is the wrath of iniquity, that ye may know judgment.
(Job)
Chapter 20
Zophar’s speech of the ungodly’s fickle fortune.

Then Zophar of Naema answered and said:

To this I must answer, and cannot wait.

And I will gladly hear who shall reprove and rebuke me: for the spirit of my understanding shall answer for me.

Knowest thou not that it hath been so ever since men were upon the earth?

That the glory of the wicked endureth not long, and the joy of the hypocrite endureth for a moment?

Though his height reach unto heaven, and his head touch the clouds, 7. But at the last he shall perish as dung, and they before whom he is seen shall say, Where is he?

As a dream passeth away, so shall it not be found; and as a vision vanisheth away in the night.

Whose eye hath seen him shall see him no more, neither shall his place behold him any more.

His children shall go begging, and his hand shall give him toil for wages.

His legs shall well pay for his secret sin, and shall lie down with him in the earth.

Though wickedness be pleasant in his mouth, yet shall it be wanting in his tongue.

It shall be stopped, and it shall not be permitted unto him; and it shall be denied him in his throat.

His inward food in his body shall be turned into the gall of vipers.

The goods which he hath swallowed he shall spue out: and God shall cast them out of his belly.

He shall suck the gall of vipers, and the serpent’s tongue shall kill him.

He shall not see the rivers, nor the brooks of water flowing with honey and butter.

He shall labour, and not profit; and