Day 2 The Wisdom Books in a Month

Job 6

1 But Job answered and said, 2 Oh that one would indeed weigh the wrath that is upon me, and take up my griefs in a balance together! 3 And verily they would be heavier than the sand by the seashore: but, as it seems, my words are vain. 4 For the arrows of the Lord are in my body, whose violence drinks up my blood: whenever I am going to speak, they pierce me. 5 What then? will the wild ass bray for nothing, if he is not seeking food? or again, will the ox low at the manger, when he has fodder? 6 Shall bread be eaten without salt? or again, is there taste in empty words? 7 For my wrath cannot cease; for I perceive my food as the smell of a lion [to be] loathsome. 8 For oh that he would grant [my desire], and my petition might come, and the Lord would grant my hope! 9 Let the Lord begin and wound me, but let him not utterly destroy me. 10 Let the grave be my city, upon the walls of which I have leaped: I will not shrink from it; for I have not denied the holy words of my God. 11 For what is my strength, that I continue? what is my time, that my soul endures? 12 Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass? 13 Or have I not trusted in him? but help is [far] from me. 14 Mercy has rejected me; and the visitation of the Lord has disregarded me. 15 My nearest relations have not regarded me; they have passed me by like a failing brook, or like a wave. 16 They who used to reverence me, now have come against me like snow or congealed ice. 17 When it has melted at the approach of heat, it is not known what it was. 18 Thus I also have been deserted of all; and I am ruined, and become an outcast. 19 Behold the ways of the Thæmanites, ye that mark the paths of the Sabæans. 20 They too that trust in cities and riches shall come to shame. 21 But ye also have come to me without pity; so that beholding my wound ye are afraid. 22 What? have I made any demand of you? or do I ask for strength from you, 23 to deliver me from enemies, or to rescue me from the hand of the mighty ones? 24 Teach ye me, and I will be silent: if in anything I have erred, tell me. 25 But as it seems, the words of a true man are vain, because I do not ask strength of you. 26 Neither will your reproof cause me to cease my words, for neither will I endure the sound of your speech. 27 Even because ye attack the fatherless, and insult your friend. 28 But now, having looked upon your countenances, I will not lie. 29 Sit down now, and let there not be unrighteousness; and unite again with the just. 30 For there is no injustice in my tongue; and does not my throat meditate understanding?

Job 7

1 Is not the life of man upon earth a state of trial? and his existence as that of a hireling by the day? 2 Or as a servant that fears his master, and one who has grasped a shadow? or as a hireling waiting for his pay? 3 So have I also endured months of vanity, and nights of pain have been appointed me. 4 Whenever I lie down, I say, When [will it be] day? and whenever I rise up, again [I say] when [will it be] evening? and I am full of pains from evening to morning. 5 And my body is covered with loathsome worms; and I waste away, scraping off clods of dust from my eruption. 6 And my life is lighter than a word, and has perished in vain hope. 7 Remember then that my life is breath, and mine eye shall not yet again see good. 8 The eye of him that sees me shall not see me [again]: thine eyes are upon me, and I am no more. 9 [I am] as a cloud that is cleared away from the sky: for if a man go down to the grave, he shall not come up again: 10 and he shall surely not return to his own house, neither shall his place know him any more. 11 Then neither will I refrain my mouth: I will speak being in distress; being in anguish I will disclose the bitterness of my soul. 12 Am I a sea, or a serpent, that thou hast set a watch over me? 13 I said that my bed should comfort me, and I would privately counsel with myself on my couch. 14 Thou scarest me with dreams, and dost terrify me with visions. 15 Thou wilt separate life from my spirit; and yet [keep] my bones from death. 16 For I shall not live for ever, that I should patiently endure: depart from me, for my life [is] vain. 17 For what is man, that thou hast magnified him? or that thou givest heed to him? 18 Wilt thou visit him till the morning, and judge him till [the time of] rest? 19 How long dost thou not let me alone, nor let me go, until I shall swallow down my spittle? 20 If I have sinned, what shall I be able to do, O thou that understandest the mind of men? why hast thou made me as thine accuser, and [why] am I a burden to thee? 21 Why hast thou not forgotten my iniquity, and purged my sin? but now I shall depart to the earth; and in the morning, I am no more.

Job 8

1 Then Baldad the Sauchite answered, and said, 2 How long wilt thou speak these things, [how long shall] the breath of thy mouth [be] abundant in words? 3 Will the Lord be unjust when he judges; or will he that has made all things pervert justice? 4 If thy sons have sinned before him, he has cast them away because of their transgression. 5 But be thou early in prayer to the Lord Almighty. 6 If thou art pure and true, he will hearken to thy supplication, and will restore to thee the habitation of righteousness. 7 Though then thy beginning should be small, yet thy end should be unspeakably great. 8 For ask of the former generation, and search diligently among the race of [our] fathers: 9 (for we are of yesterday, and know nothing; for our life upon the earth is a shadow:) 10 shall not these teach thee, and report [to thee], and bring out words from [their] heart? 11 Does the rush flourish without water, or shall the flag grow up without moisture? 12 When it is yet on the root, and [though] it has not been cut down, does not any herb wither before it has received moisture? 13 Thus then shall be the end of all that forget the Lord: for the hope of the ungodly shall perish. 14 For his house shall be without inhabitants, and his tent shall prove a spider's web. 15 If he should prop up his house, it shall not stand: and when he has taken hold of it, it shall not remain. 16 For it is moist under the sun, and his branch shall come forth out of his dung-heap. 17 He lies down upon a gathering of stones, and shall live in the midst of flints. 18 If [God] should destroy [him], his place shall deny him. Hast thou not seen such things, 19 that such is the overthrow of the ungodly? and out of the earth another shall grow. 20 For the Lord will by no means reject the harmless man; but he will not receive any gift of the ungodly. 21 But he will fill with laughter the mouth of the sincere, and their lips with thanksgiving. 22 But their adversaries shall clothe themselves with shame; and the habitation of the ungodly shall perish.

Job 9

1 Then Job answered and said, 2 I know of a truth that it is so: for how shall a mortal man be just before the Lord? 3 For if he would enter into judgment with him, [God] would not hearken to him, so that he should answer to one of his charges of a thousand. 4 For he is wise in mind, and mighty, and great: who has hardened himself against him and endured? 5 Who wears out the mountains, and [men] know it not: who overturns them in anger. 6 Who shakes the [earth] under heaven from its foundations, and its pillars totter. 7 Who commands the sun, and it rises not; and he seals up the stars. 8 Who alone has stretched out the heavens, and walks on the sea as on firm ground. 9 Who makes Pleias, and Hesperus, and Arcturus, and the chambers of the south. 10 Who does great and unsearchable things; glorious also and excellent things, innumerable. 11 If ever he should go beyond me, I shall not see him: if he should pass by me, neither thus have I known [it]. 12 If he would take away, who shall turn him back? or who shall say to him, What hast thou done? 13 For [if] he has turned away [his] anger, the whales under heaven have stooped under him. 14 Oh then that he would hearken to me, or judge my cause. 15 For though I be righteous, he will not hearken to me: I will intreat his judgment. 16 And if I should call and he should not hearken, I cannot believe that he has listened to my voice. 17 Let him not crush me with a dark storm: but he has made my bruises many without cause. 18 For he suffers me not to take breath, but he has filled me with bitterness. 19 For indeed he is strong in power: who then shall resist his judgment? 20 For though I should seem righteous, my mouth will be profane: and though I should seem blameless, I shall be proved perverse. 21 For even if I have sinned, I know it not [in] my soul: but my life is taken away. 22 Wherefore I said, Wrath slays the great and mighty man. 23 For the worthless die, but the righteous are laughed to scorn. 24 For they are delivered into the hands of the unrighteous [man]: he covers the faces of the judges [of the earth]: but if it be not he, who is it? 25 But my life is swifter than a post: [my days] have fled away, and they knew it not. 26 Or again, is there a trace of [their] path [left] by ships? or is there one of the flying eagle as it seeks [its] prey? 27 And if I should say, I will forget to speak, I will bow down my face and groan; 28 I quake in all my limbs, for I know that thou wilt not leave me alone [as] innocent. 29 But since I am ungodly, why have I not died? 30 For if I should wash myself with snow, and purge myself with pure hands, 31 thou hadst thoroughly plunged me in filth, and my garment had abhorred me. 32 For thou art not man like me, with whom I could contend, that we might come together to judgment. 33 Would that [he] our mediator were [present], and a reprover, and one who should hear [the cause] between both. 34 Let him remove [his] rod from me, and let not his fear terrify me: 35 so shall I not be afraid, but I will speak: for I am not thus conscious [of guilt].

Job 10

1 Weary in my soul, I will pour my words with groans upon him: I will speak being straitened in the bitterness of my soul. 2 And I will say to the Lord, Do not teach me to be impious; and wherefore hast thou thus judged me? 3 Is it good before thee if I be unrighteous? for thou hast disowned the work of thy hands, and attended to the counsel of the ungodly. 4 Or dost thou see as a mortal sees? or wilt thou look as a man sees? 5 Or is thy life human, or thy years [the years] of a man, 6 that thou hast enquired into mine iniquity, and searched out my sins? 7 For thou knowest that I have not committed iniquity: but who is he that can deliver out of thy hands? 8 Thy hands have formed me and made me; afterwards thou didst change [thy mind], and smite me. 9 Remember that thou hast made me [as] clay, and thou dost turn me again to earth. 10 Hast thou not poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese? 11 And thou didst clothe me with skin and flesh, and frame me with bones and sinews. 12 And thou didst bestow upon me life and mercy, and thy oversight has preserved my spirit. 13 Having these things in thyself, I know that thou canst do all things; for nothing is impossible with thee. 14 And if I should sin, thou watchest me; and thou hast not cleared me from iniquity. 15 Or if I should be ungodly, woe is me: and if I should be righteous, I cannot lift myself up, for I am full of dishonour. 16 For I am hunted like a lion for slaughter; for again thou hast changed and art terribly destroying me; 17 renewing against me my torture: and thou hast dealt with me in great anger, and thou hast brought trials upon me. 18 Why then didst thou bring me out of the womb? and why did I not die, and no eye see me, 19 and I become as if I had not been? for why was I not carried from the womb to the grave? 20 Is not the time of my life short? suffer me to rest a little, 21 before I go whence I shall not return, to a land of darkness and gloominess; 22 to a land of perpetual darkness, where there is no light, neither [can any one] see the life of mortals.