Women living for Him
Chapter 15
1Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said,
2Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?
3Should he reason with unprofitable talk? or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?
4Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.
5For thy mouth uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.
6Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea, thine own lips testify against thee.
7Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills?
8Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?
9What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us?
10With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.
11Are the consolations of God small with thee? is there any secret thing with thee?
12Why doth thine heart carry thee away? and what do thy eyes wink at,
13That thou turnest thy spirit against God, and lettest such words go out of thy mouth?
14What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.
16How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?
17I will shew thee, hear me; and that which I have seen I will declare;
18Which wise men have told from their fathers, and have not hid it:
19Unto whom alone the earth was given, and no stranger passed among them.
20The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
21A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him.
22He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword.
23He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it? he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand.
24Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.
25For he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty.
26He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers:
27Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.
28And he dwelleth in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabiteth, which are ready to become heaps.
29He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth.
30He shall not depart out of darkness; the flame shall dry up his branches, and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away.
31Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.
32It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.
33He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, and shall cast off his flower as the olive.
34For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.
35They conceive mischief, and bring forth vanity, and their belly prepareth deceit.
Chapter 16
2I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.
3Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?
4I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.
5But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.
6Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?
7But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.
8And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.
9He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
10They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.
11God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
12I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.
13His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.
14He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.
15I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.
16My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
17Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.
18O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.
19Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.
20My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
21O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!
22When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
Chapter 17
1My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
2Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
3Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?
4For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
5He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
6He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
7Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
8Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
9The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
10But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.
11My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
12They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
13If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
14I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
15And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
16They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
Chapter 18
1Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
2How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.
3Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?
4He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?
5Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.
6The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.
7The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.
8For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.
9The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him.
10The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.
11Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
12His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side.
13It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.
14His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.
15It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.
16His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.
17His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.
18He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
19He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.
20They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.
21Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.
Chapter 19
2How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
3These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.
4And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.
5If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:
6Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.
7Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.
8He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
9He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
10He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.
11He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.
12His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.
13He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.
14My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
15They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
16I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.
17My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body.
18Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.
19All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.
20My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
21Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
22Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
23Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
24That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!
25For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
26And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
27Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
28But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?
29Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.
Chapter 20
1Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
2Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, and for this I make haste.
3I have heard the check of my reproach, and the spirit of my understanding causeth me to answer.
4Knowest thou not this of old, since man was placed upon earth,
5That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
6Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;
7Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
8He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
9The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.
10His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.
11His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.
12Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue;
13Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth:
14Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him.
15He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly.
16He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay him.
17He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.
18That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.
19Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;
20Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.
21There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.
22In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.
23When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.
24He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.
25It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him.
26All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.
27The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.
28The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.
29This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.
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