Day 230 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Job 17

1 I perish, carried away by the wind, and I seek for burial, and obtain [it] not. 2 Weary I intreat; and what have I done? and strangers have stolen my goods. 3 Who is this? let him join hands with me. 4 For thou hast hid their heart from wisdom; therefore thou shalt not exalt them. 5 He shall promise mischief to [his] companions: but [their] eyes have failed for [their] children. 6 But thou hast made me a byword among the nations, and I am become a scorn to them. 7 For my eyes are dimmed through pain; I have been grievously beset by all. 8 Wonder has seized true men upon this; and let the just rise up against the transgressor. 9 But let the faithful hold on his own way, and let him that is pure of hands take courage. 10 Howbeit, do ye all strengthen [yourselves] and come now, for I do not find truth in you. 11 My days have passed in groaning, and my heart-strings are broken. 12 I have turned the night into day: the light is short because of darkness. 13 For if I remain, Hades is my habitation: and my bed has been made in darkness. 14 I have called upon death to be my father, and corruption [to be] my mother and sister. 15 Where then is yet my hope? or [where] shall I see my good? 16 Will they go down with me to Hades, or shall we go down together to the tomb?

Job 18

1 Then Baldad the Sauchite answered and said, 2 How long wilt thou continue? forbear, that we also may speak. 3 For wherefore have we been silent before thee like brutes? 4 Anger has possessed thee: for what if thou shouldest die; would [the earth] under heaven be desolate? or shall the mountains be overthrown from their foundations? 5 But the light of the ungodly shall be quenched, and their flame shall not go up. 6 His light [shall be] darkness in [his] habitation, and his lamp shall be put out with him. 7 Let the meanest of men spoil his goods, and let his counsel deceive [him]. 8 His foot also has been caught in a snare, [and] let it be entangled in a net. 9 And let snares come upon him: he shall strengthen those that thirst for his destruction. 10 His snare is hid in the earth, and that which shall take him is by the path. 11 Let pains destroy him round about, and let many [enemies] come about him, 12 [vex him] with distressing hunger: and a signal destruction has been prepared for him. 13 Let the soles of his feet be devoured: and death shall consume his beauty. 14 And let health be utterly banished from his tabernacle, and let distress seize upon him with a charge from the king. 15 It shall dwell in his tabernacle in his night: his excellency shall be sown with brimstone. 16 His roots shall be dried up from beneath, and his crop shall fall away from above. 17 Let his memorial perish out of the earth, and his name shall be publicly cast out. 18 Let [one] drive him from light into darkness. 19 He shall not be known among his people, nor his house preserved on the earth. 20 But strangers shall dwell in his possessions: the last groaned for him, and wonder seized the first. 21 These are the houses of the unrighteous, and this is the place of them that know not the Lord.

Job 19

1 Then Job answered and said, 2 How long will ye vex my soul, and destroy me with words? only know that the Lord has dealt with me thus. 3 Ye speak against me; ye do not feel for me, but bear hard upon me. 4 Yea verily, I have erred in truth, (but the error abides with myself) 4a in having spoken words which it was not right [to speak]; and my words err, and are unseasonable. 5 But alas! for ye magnify yourselves against me, and insult me with reproach. 6 Know then that it is the Lord that has troubled [me], and has raised his bulwark against me. 7 Behold, I laugh at reproach; I will not speak: [or] I will cry out, but [there is] nowhere judgment. 8 I am fenced round about, and can by no means escape: he has set darkness before my face. 9 And he has stripped me of my glory, and has taken the crown from my head. 10 He has torn me round about, and I am gone: and he has cut off my hope like a tree. 11 And he has dreadfully handled me in anger, and has counted me for an enemy. 12 His troops also came upon me with one accord, liers in wait compassed my ways. 13 My brethren have stood aloof from me; they have recognised strangers [rather] than me: and my friends have become pitiless. 14 My nearest of kin have not acknowledged me, and they that knew my name, have forgotten me. 15 [As for] my household, and my maid-servants, I was a stranger before them. 16 I called my servant, and he hearkened not; and my mouth intreated [him]. 17 And I besought my wife, and earnestly intreated the sons of my concubines. 18 But they rejected me for ever; whenever I rise up, they speak against me. 19 They that saw me abhorred me: the very persons whom I had loved, rose up against me. 20 My flesh is corrupt under my skin, and my bones are held in [my] teeth. 21 Pity me, pity me, O friends; for it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me. 22 Wherefore do ye persecute me as also the Lord [does], and are not satisfied with my flesh? 23 For oh that my words were written, and that they were recorded in a book for ever, 24 with an iron pen and lead, or graven in the rocks! 25 For I know that he is eternal who is about to deliver me, 26 [and] to raise up upon the earth my skin that endures these [sufferings]: for these things have been accomplished to me of the Lord; 27 which I am conscious of in myself, which mine eye has seen, and not another, but all have been fulfilled to me in [my] bosom. 28 But if ye shall also say, What shall we say before him, and [so] find the root of the matter in him? 29 Do ye also beware of deceit: for wrath will come upon transgressors; and then shall they know where their substance is.