Will ye make an answer for God with lies, and maintain him with deceit?

Shall that help you, when he calleth you to reckoning? Think ye to beguile him, as a man is beguiled?

Shall he not make you afraid, when he showeth himself? Shall not his terrible face fall upon you?

Wherefore do I bear my flesh in my teeth, and put my soul in my hands?

Lo, though he slay me, yet will I put my trust in him. But if I shew and reprove mine own ways in his sight,

Thou hast put my foot in the stocks: thou lookest narrowly unto all my paths, and markest the steps of my feet.

He cometh up and is cut down like a flower. He flyeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one state.

Doest thou open thine eyes upon such one, and bringest me in thy judgment?

Who can make it clean, that cometh from an unclean thing? Nobody.

For though a root be waxen old and dead in the ground,

yet when the stock getteth the scent of water, it will bud, and bring forth bows, like as when it was first planted.

But as for man; when he is dead, perished and consumed away, what becometh of him?

The floods when they be dried up, and the rivers when they be empty, are filled again through the flowing waters of the sea:

but when man sleepeth, he riseth not again, until the heaven perish: he shall not wake up nor rise out of his sleep.

O that thou wouldest keep me, and hide me in the hell, until thy wrath were stilled: and to appoint me a time, wherein thou mightest remember me.

If thou wouldest but call me, I should obey thee: only despise not the work of thine own hands.

Thou hast sealed up mine offenses, as it were in a bag: but be merciful unto my wickedness.

the waters pierce through the very stones by little and little, the floods wash away the gravel and the earth. Even so destroyest thou the hope of man in like manner.

While he liveth, his flesh must have travail: And while the soul is in him, he must be in sorrow."

Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I: yea thine own lips shape the answer.

Why doth thine heart make thee so proud? Why standest thou so greatly in thine own conceit? Where unto look thine eyes,

Behold, he doth not trust his saints; yea, the very heavens are not clean in his sight.

How much more then an abominable and vile man, which drinketh wickedness like water?

A fearful sound is ever in his ears, and when it is peace yet feareth he destruction.

When he goeth forth to get his living, he thinketh plainly, that the day of darkness is at hand.

Therefore shall his dwelling be in desolate cities, and in houses which no man inhabits, but are become heaps of stones.

He shall be plucked off as an untimely grape from the vine, and shall let his flower fall, as the olive doth.

Shall not thy vain words come yet to an end? Or, hast thou yet any more to say?

I could speak as ye do also. But would God, that your soul were in my soul's stead: then should I heap up words against you, and shake my head at you.

And that thou hast filled me with wrinkles, my flesh is witness; and my leanness riseth up against me and beareth witness thereof in my face.

I was some time in wealth, but suddenly hath he brought me to naught. He hath taken me by the neck, he hath rent me, and set me, as it were a mark for him to shoot at.

He hath given me one wound upon another, and is fallen upon me like a giant.

I have sewed a sackcloth upon my skin, and lie with my strength in the dust.

"Howbeit there is no wickedness in my hands, and my prayer is clean.

For lo, my witness is in heaven, and he that knoweth me, is above in the height.

Though a body might plead with God, as one man doth with another,

Froward men are with me, and mine eye must continue in the bitterness of them.

Thou hast withholden their hearts from understanding, therefore shall they not be set up on high.

He promiseth his friends part of his good, but his own children spend it.

"As for you, turn you, and get you hence, I pray you - seeing I cannot see one wise man among you.

Though I tarry never so much, yet the grave is my house, and I must make my bed in the dark.

All that I have, shall go down into the pit, and lie with me in the dust."

"When will ye make an end of your words? Mark well, and consider, we will speak also.

Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed so vile in your sight?

The light shall be dark in his dwelling, and his candle shall be put out with him.

His presumptuous goings shall be kept in, and his own counsel shall cast him down.

For his feet shall be taken in the net, and he is at his wits end.

His foot shall be holden in the gilder, and the thirsty shall catch him.

The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a pitfall in the way.

"Fearfulness shall make him afraid on every side, that he shall not know where to get out.

He shall eat the strength of his own skin; the firstborn of death shall eat his members.

Other men shall dwell in his house - which now is none of his - and brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.

His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and his name shall not be praised in the streets:

He shall neither have children nor kinfolks among his people, no nor any posterity in his country:

"He hath hedged up my way, that I cannot pass; he hath set darkness in my gate.

He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am undone: My hope hath he taken away from me, as it were a tree plucked up by the root.

Mine own kinfolk have forsaken me, and my friends have put me out of remembrance.

The servants and maids of mine own house take me for a stranger, and I am become as an alien in their sight.

When I call upon my servant, he giveth me no answer: no though I pray him with my mouth.

Mine own wife may not abide my breath, I was fain to speak fair for the children of mine own body.

Yea the children despised me, and when I was gone from them, they spake evil upon me.

O that my words were written, O that they were put in a book:

would God they were graven with an iron pen in lead or in stone.

"For I am sure that my redeemer liveth, and that I shall rise out of the earth in the latter day:

that I shall be clothed again with this skin, and see God in my flesh.

Did not ye say, "Why doth he suffer persecution?" Is there found an occasion against me?

the praise of the ungodly hath been short, and that the joy of the hypocrites continued but the twinkling of an eye?

He vanisheth as a dream, so that he can no more be found, and passeth away as a vision in the night.

From his youth his bones are full of vice; but now shall it lie down with him in the earth.

When wickedness was sweet in his mouth, he hid it under his tongue.

That he favoured, that would he not forsake; but kept it close in his throat.

His belly could never be filled; therefore shall he perish in his covetousness.

Though he had plenteousness of everything, yet was he poor, and therefore he is but a wretch on every side.

There shall no darkness be able to hide him. An unkindled fire shall consume him; and look, what remaineth in his house, it shall be destroyed.

The substance that he hath in his house, shall be taken away and perish, in the day of the LORD's wrath.

Is it with a man, that I make this disputation? Which if it were so, should not my spirit be then in sore trouble?

For when I ponder and consider this, I am afraid, and my flesh is smitten with fear.

"Wherefore do wicked men live in health and prosperity, come to their old age, and increase in riches?

Their children's children live in their sight, and their generation before their eyes.

They spend their days in wealthiness: but suddenly, they go down to hell.

Lo, there is utterly no goodness in them, therefore will not I have to do with the counsel of the ungodly.

"How oft shall the candle of the wicked be put out? How oft cometh their destruction upon them? Oh what sorrow shall God give them for their part in his wrath!

Their own destruction and misery shall they see with their eyes, and drink of the fearful wrath of the Almighty.

For what careth he, what become of his household after his death, when the number of his months is cut short?

One dieth now when he is mighty and at his best, rich and in prosperity;

even when his bowels are at the fattest, and his bones full of marrow.

Another dieth in sorrow and heaviness, and never had good days.

Now sleep they both alike in the earth, and the worms cover them.

that the wicked is kept unto the day of destruction, and that the ungodly shall be brought forth in the day of wrath.

Should such one then as useth violence, wrong and oppression, doing all things of partiality, and having respect of persons, dwell in the land?

Therefore art thou compassed about with snares on every side, and suddenly vexed with fear.

Tush, the clouds cover him that he may not see, for he dwelleth in heaven.'

Receive the law at his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.

He shall give thee a harvest, which in plenty and abundance shall exceed the dust of the earth, and the gold of Ophir like river stones.

Yea, the Almighty his own self shall be thine harvest, and the heap of thy money.

Then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and lift up thy face unto God.

Then, look what thou takest in hand: he shall make it to prosper with thee, and the light shall shine in thy ways.

"My saying is yet this day in bitterness, and my hand heavy among my groanings.

If I go on the left side to ponder his works, I can not attain unto them. Again, if I go on the rightside, he hideth himself, that I cannot see him.

But as for my way, he knoweth it: and tryeth me as the gold in the fire.