to mourn with him and to comfort him. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great. After this opened Job his CHAPTER 3 mouth, and cursed his day. And Job spake, and said, Let the day perish wherein I was born, And the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. Let that day be darkness; Let not God regard it from above, Neither let the light shine upon it. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; Let the blackness of the day terrify it. As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; Let no joyful voice come therein. Let them curse it that curse the day, Who are ready to raise up their mourning. Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; Neither let it see the dawning of the day: Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb, Nor hid sorrow from mine eyes. Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? Why did the knees prevent me? Or why the breast that I should suck? For now should I have lain still and been quiet, Who filled their houses with silver: Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; There the wicked cease from troubling; And the servant is free from his master. And life unto the bitter in soul; Which long for death, but it cometh not; And are glad, when they can find the grave? For my sighing cometh before I eat, And my roarings are poured out like the waters. me, And that which I was afraid of is come unto me. I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was Yet trouble came. Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, CHAPTER 4 If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking? And thou hast strengthened the weak hands. Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, Thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways? Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? Or where were the righteous cut off? Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, By the blast of God they perish, And by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed. The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, And the teeth of the young lions, are broken. The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, And the stout lion's whelps are scattered abroad. It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: An image was before mine eyes, There was silence, and I heard a voice, saying, Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his maker? Behold, he put no trust in his servants: How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, Which are crushed before the moth? They are destroyed from morning to evening: Call now, if there be any that will answer thee; CHAPTER 5 And the robber swalloweth up their substance. As the sparks fly upward. |