renounce thee to thy face. And Jehovah said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thy hand; only spare his life.

So Satan went forth from the presence of Jehovah, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself therewith; and he sat among the ashes. Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still hold fast thine integrity? renounce God, and die. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to bemoan him and to comfort him. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his robe, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.

THE CURSE

After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day. And Job answered and said:

Let the day perish wherein I was born,

And the night which said, There is a man-child conceived. Let that day be darkness;

Let not God from above seek for it,

Neither let the light shine upon it.

Let darkness and the shadow of death claim it for thei

own;

Let a cloud dwell upon it;

Let all that maketh black the day terrify it.

As for that night, let thick darkness seize upon it:

Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;

Let it not come into the number of the months.
Lo, let that night be barren;

Let no joyful voice come therein.

Let them curse it that curse the day,
Who are ready to rouse up leviathan.

Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark:
Let it look for light, but have none;

Neither let it behold the eyelids of the morning:

Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb,

Nor hid trouble from mine eyes.

Why died I not from the womb?

Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bare me?

Why did the knees receive me?

Or why the breasts, that I should suck?

For now should I have lain down and been quiet;

I should have slept; then had I been at rest,

With kings and counsellors of the earth,
Who built up waste places for themselves;
Or with princes that had gold,

Who filled their houses with silver:

Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been,
As infants that never saw light.

There the wicked cease from troubling;
And there the weary are at rest.

There the prisoners are at ease together;

They hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
The small and the great are there:
And the servant is free from his master.

Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery,

And life unto the bitter in soul;

Who long for death, but it cometh not,
And dig for it more than for hid treasures;

Who rejoice exceedingly,

And are glad, when they can find the grave?
Why is light given to a man whose way is hid,
And whom God hath hedged in?

For my sighing cometh before I eat,

And my groanings are poured out like water.
For the thing which I fear cometh upon me,

And that which I am afraid of cometh unto me.

I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; But trouble cometh.

JOB'S DEBATE WITH THE THREE FALSE
COMFORTERS

Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said, If one assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? But who can withhold himself from speaking?

Behold, thou hast instructed many,

And thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
Thy words have upholden him that was falling,
And thou hast made firm the feeble knees.
But now it is come unto thee, and thou faintest;
It toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.

Is not thy fear of God thy confidence,
And the integrity of thy ways thy hope?

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

According as I have seen, they that plow iniquity,
And sow trouble, reap the same.

By the breath of God they perish,

And by the blast of his anger are they consumed.

The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion,

And the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

The old lion perisheth for lack of prey,

And the whelps of the lioness are scattered abroad.

Now a thing was secretly brought to me,
And mine ear received a whisper thereof.
In thoughts from the visions of the night,
When deep sleep falleth on men,
Fear came upon me, and trembling,
Which made all my bones to shake.
Then a spirit passed before my face;
The hair of my flesh stood up.

It stood still, but I could not discern the appearance thereof;

A form was before mine eyes:

There was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,

Shall mortal man be more just than God?
Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?
Behold, he putteth no trust in his servants;
And his angels he chargeth with folly:

How much more them that dwell in houses of clay, Whose foundation is in the dust,

Who are crushed before the moth!

Betwixt morning and evening they are destroyed:
They perish for ever without any regarding it.
Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them?
They die, and that without wisdom.

Call now; is there any that will answer thee?
And to which of the holy ones wilt thou turn?
For vexation killeth the foolish man,

And jealousy slayeth the silly one.
I have seen the foolish taking root:
But suddenly I cursed his habitation.
His children are far from safety,
And they are crushed in the gate,
Neither is there any to deliver them:
Whose harvest the hungry eateth up,
And taketh it even out of the thorns;
And the snare gapeth for their substance.
For affliction cometh not forth from the dust,
Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground;
But man is born unto trouble,

As the sparks fly upward.

But as for me, I would seek unto God,
And unto God would I commit my cause;
Who doeth great things and unsearchable,
Marvellous things without number:
Who giveth rain upon the earth,
And sendeth waters upon the fields;

So that he setteth up on high those that are low,
And those that mourn are exalted to safety.

He frustrateth the devices of the crafty,

So that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness;

And the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong. They meet with darkness in the day-time,

And grope at noonday as in the night.

But he saveth from the sword of their mouth,
Even the needy from the hand of the mighty.

So the poor hath hope,

And iniquity stoppeth her mouth.

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth:

Therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty. For he maketh sore, and bindeth up;

He woundeth, and his hands make whole.

He will deliver thee in six troubles;

Yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.
In famine he will redeem thee from death;
And in war from the power of the sword.

Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue;
Neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.
At destruction and dearth thou shalt laugh;

Neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field;
And the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.
And thou shalt know that thy tent is in peace;
And thou shalt visit thy fold, and shalt miss nothing.
Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great,
And thine offspring as the grass of the earth.
Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age,
Like as a shock of grain cometh in in its season.
Lo this, we have searched it, so it is;
Hear it, and know thou it for thy good.

Then Job answered and said,

Oh that my vexation were but weighed,

And all my calamity laid in the balances!

For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas:

Therefore have my words been rash.

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.

Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass?

Or loweth the ox over his fodder?

Can that which hath no savor be eaten without salt?

Or is there any taste in the white of an egg?

My soul refuseth to touch them;

They are as loathsome food to me.