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

¹ And Job answereth and saith: -- ² O that my provocation were thoroughly weighed, And my calamity in balances They would lift up together! ³ For now, than the sands of the sea it is heavier, Therefore my words have been rash. ⁴ For arrows of the Mighty are with me, Whose poison is drinking up my spirit. Terrors of God array themselves for me! ⁵ Brayeth a wild ass over tender grass? Loweth an ox over his provender? ⁶ Eaten is an insipid thing without salt? Is there sense in the drivel of dreams? ⁷ My soul is refusing to touch! They are as my sickening food.

⁸ O that my request may come, That God may grant my hope! ⁹ That God would please -- and bruise me, Loose His hand and cut me off! ¹⁰ And yet it is my comfort, (And I exult in pain -- He doth not spare,) That I have not hidden The sayings of the Holy One.

¹¹ What is my power that I should hope? And what mine end That I should prolong my life? ¹² Is my strength the strength of stones? Is my flesh brazen? ¹³ Is not my help with me, And substance driven from me?

¹⁴ To a despiser of his friends is shame, And the fear of the Mighty he forsaketh. ¹⁵ My brethren have deceived as a brook, As a stream of brooks they pass away. ¹⁶ That are black because of ice, By them doth snow hide itself. ¹⁷ By the time they are warm they have been cut off, By its being hot they have been Extinguished from their place. ¹⁸ Turn aside do the paths of their way, They ascend into emptiness, and are lost. ¹⁹ Passengers of Tema looked expectingly, Travellers of Sheba hoped for them. ²⁰ They were ashamed that one hath trusted, They have come unto it and are confounded. ²¹ Surely now ye have become the same! Ye see a downfall, and are afraid. ²² Is it because I said, Give to me? And, By your power bribe for me? ²³ And, Deliver me from the hand of an adversary? And, From the hand of terrible ones ransom me?

²⁴ Shew me, and I -- I keep silent, And what I have erred, let me understand. ²⁵ How powerful have been upright sayings, And what doth reproof from you reprove? ²⁶ For reproof -- do you reckon words? And for wind -- sayings of the desperate. ²⁷ Anger on the fatherless ye cause to fall, And are strange to your friend.

²⁸ And, now, please, look upon me, Even to your face do I lie? ²⁹ Turn back, I pray you, let it not be perverseness, Yea, turn back again -- my righteousness is in it. ³⁰ Is there in my tongue perverseness? Discerneth not my palate desirable things?

¹ Is there not a warfare to man on earth? And as the days of an hireling his days? ² As a servant desireth the shadow, And as a hireling expecteth his wage, ³ So I have been caused to inherit months of vanity, And nights of misery they numbered to me. ⁴ If I lay down then I said, 'When do I rise!' And evening hath been measured, And I have been full of tossings till dawn. ⁵ Clothed hath been my flesh with worms, And a clod of dust, My skin hath been shrivelled and is loathsome,

⁶ My days swifter than a weaving machine, And they are consumed without hope. ⁷ Remember Thou that my life is a breath, Mine eye turneth not back to see good. ⁸ The eye of my beholder beholdeth me not. Thine eyes are upon me -- and I am not. ⁹ Consumed hath been a cloud, and it goeth, So he who is going down to Sheol cometh not up. ¹⁰ He turneth not again to his house, Nor doth his place discern him again.

¹¹ Also I -- I withhold not my mouth -- I speak in the distress of my spirit, I talk in the bitterness of my soul. ¹² A sea -monster am I, or a dragon, That thou settest over me a guard? ¹³ When I said, 'My bed doth comfort me,' He taketh away in my talking my couch. ¹⁴ And thou hast affrighted me with dreams, And from visions thou terrifiest me, ¹⁵ And my soul chooseth strangling, Death rather than my bones. ¹⁶ I have wasted away -- not to the age do I live. Cease from me, for my days are vanity.

¹⁷ What is man that Thou dost magnify him? And that Thou settest unto him Thy heart? ¹⁸ And inspectest him in the mornings, In the evenings dost try him? ¹⁹ How long dost Thou not look from me? Thou dost not desist till I swallow my spittle. ²⁰ I have sinned, what do I to Thee, O watcher of man? Why hast Thou set me for a mark to Thee, And I am for a burden to myself -- and what? ²¹ Thou dost not take away my transgression, And cause to pass away mine iniquity, Because now, for dust I lie down: And Thou hast sought me -- and I am not!