Job 6:1-30 - Job's Second Speech: A Response To Eliphaz

¹ Then Job answered and said, ² Oh that my vexation were but weighed, And all my calamity laid in the balances! ³ For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas: Therefore have my words been rash. ⁴ For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, The poison whereof my spirit drinketh up: The terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. ⁵ Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? Or loweth the ox over his fodder? ⁶ Can that which hath no savor be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg? ⁷ My soul refuseth to touch them ; They are as loathsome food to me.

⁸ Oh that I might have my request; And that God would grant me the thing that I long for! ⁹ Even that it would please God to crush me; That he would let loose his hand, and cut me off! ¹⁰ And be it still my consolation, Yea, let me exult in pain that spareth not, That I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

¹¹ What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is mine end, that I should be patient? ¹² Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh of brass? ¹³ Is it not that I have no help in me, And that wisdom is driven quite from me?

¹⁴ To him that is ready to faint kindness'should be showed from his friend; Even to him that forsaketh the fear of the Almighty. ¹⁵ My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, As the channel of brooks that pass away; ¹⁶ Which are black by reason of the ice, And wherein the snow hideth itself: ¹⁷ What time they wax warm, they vanish; When it is hot, they are consumed out of their place. ¹⁸ The caravans that travel by the way of them turn aside; They go up into the waste, and perish. ¹⁹ The caravans of Tema looked, The companies of Sheba waited for them. ²⁰ They were put to shame because they had hoped; They came thither, and were confounded. ²¹ For now ye are nothing; Ye see a terror, and are afraid. ²² Did I say, Give unto me? Or, Offer a present for me of your substance? ²³ Or, Deliver me from the adversary's hand? Or, Redeem me from the hand of the oppressors?

²⁴ Teach me, and I will hold my peace; And cause me to understand wherein I have erred. ²⁵ How forcible are words of uprightness! But your reproof, what doth it reprove? ²⁶ Do ye think to reprove words, Seeing that the speeches of one that is desperate are as wind? ²⁷ Yea, ye would cast lots upon the fatherless, And make merchandise of your friend.

²⁸ Now therefore be pleased to look upon me; For surely I shall not lie to your face. ²⁹ Return, I pray you, let there be no injustice; Yea, return again, my cause is righteous. ³⁰ Is there injustice on my tongue? Cannot my taste discern mischievous things?

¹ Is there not a warfare to man upon earth? And are not his days like the days of a hireling? ² As a servant that earnestly desireth the shadow, And as a hireling that looketh for his wages: ³ So am I made to possess months of misery, And wearisome nights are appointed to me. ⁴ When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day. ⁵ My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; My skin closeth up, and breaketh out afresh.

⁶ My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, And are spent without hope. ⁷ Oh remember that my life is a breath: Mine eye shall no more see good. ⁸ The eye of him that seeth me shall behold me no more; Thine eyes shall be upon me, but I shall not be. ⁹ As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, So he that goeth down to Sheol shall come up no more. ¹⁰ He shall return no more to his house, Neither shall his place know him any more.

¹¹ Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. ¹² Am I a sea, or a sea-monster, That thou settest a watch over me? ¹³ When I say, My bed shall comfort me, My couch shall ease my complaint; ¹⁴ Then thou scarest me with dreams, And terrifiest me through visions: ¹⁵ So that my soul chooseth strangling, And death rather than these my bones. ¹⁶ I loathe my life ; I would not live alway: Let me alone; for my days are vanity.

¹⁷ What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him, And that thou shouldest set thy mind upon him, ¹⁸ And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, And try him every moment? ¹⁹ How long wilt thou not look away from me, Nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle? ²⁰ If I have sinned, what do I unto thee, O thou watcher of men? Why hast thou set me as a mark for thee, So that I am a burden to myself? ²¹ And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? For now shall I lie down in the dust; And thou wilt seek me diligently, but I shall not be.