While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:

Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?

Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together!

They were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed.

Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge.

Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life.

I 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.

They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.

Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!

That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!

As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?

Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood:

As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.

Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;

When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;

For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.

They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;)

Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.

They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.

If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;

This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.

Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken, because they were elder than he.

They were amazed, they answered no more: they left off speaking.

His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out.

Job hath spoken without knowledge, and his words were without wisdom.

She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers: her labour is in vain without fear;

And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.

The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.

There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.

Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the LORD bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.

There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.

He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.

He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.

For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me.

I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them: neither did I turn again till they were consumed.

I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under my feet.

They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom.

Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

Kings' daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.

The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.

For, lo, the kings were assembled, they passed by together.

They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away.

If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.

There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them.

Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: for there were many with me.

The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.

The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; among them were the damsels playing with timbrels.

To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old; lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice.

But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.

The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled.

So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;

They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was yet in their mouths,

For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.

For he remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.

But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.

The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.

I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it.

But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.

And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.

Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.

Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand.

Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity.

O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!

{A Song of degrees.} When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.

Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.

When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.

Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:

Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.

I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me:

So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.

So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.

Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this.

And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.

Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother's children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.

My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.

Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies.

Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:

Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns.

Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.

And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.

They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.

At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered.

Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the children of Eden which were in Telassar?