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To the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister. And where is now my hope?

As for my hope, who shall see it?

They shall go down to the bars of the pit,
When our rest together is in the dust.

Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
How long will it be ere ye make an end of words?
Mark, and afterwards we will speak.
Wherefore are we counted as beasts,
And reputed vile in your sight?

He teareth himself in his anger:

Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall
the rock be removed out of his place?
Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out,
And the spark of his fire shall not shine.
The light shall be dark in his tabernacle,
And his candle shall be put out with him.
The steps of his strength shall be straitened,
And his own counsel shall cast him down.
For he is cast into a net by his own feet,
And he walketh upon a snare.

The gin shall take him by the heel,
And the robber shall prevail against him.
The snare is laid for him in the ground,
And a trap for him in the way.

Terrors shall make him afraid on every side,
And shall drive him to his feet.

His strength shall be hungerbitten,
And destruction shall be ready at his side.
It shall devour the strength of his skin:

Even the firstborn of death shall devour his
strength.

His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle,

And it shall bring him to the king of terrors. It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his:

Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation. His roots shall be dried up beneath,

And above shall his branch be cut off.

His remembrance shall perish from the earth,
And he shall have no name in the street.
He shall be driven from light into darkness,
And chased out of the world.

He shall neither have son nor nephew among people,

Nor any remaining in his dwellings.

They that come after him shall be astonied at

his day

his

As they that went before were affrighted. Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, And this is the place of him that knoweth not God.

Then Job answered and said,

How long will ye vex my soul,

And break me in pieces with words?

These ten times have ye reproached me:

Ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange

to me.

And be it indeed that I have erred,

Mine error remaineth with myself.

If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me,
And plead against me my reproach:

Know now that God hath overthrown me,
And hath compassed me with his net.

Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard:
I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.

He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass,
And he hath set darkness in my paths.
He hath stripped me of my glory,

And taken the crown from my head.

He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone:
And mine hope hath he removed like a tree.
He hath also kindled his wrath against me,

And he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

His troops come together, and raise up their way against me,

And encamp round about my tabernacle.

He hath put my brethren far from me,

And mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. My kinsfolk have failed,

And my familiar friends have forgotten me.

They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count

me for a stranger:

I am an alien in their sight.

I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.

My breath is strange to my wife,

Though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body.

Yea, young children despised me;

I arose, and they spake against me.
All my inward friends abhorred me:

And they whom I loved are turned against me.
My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh,
And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my
friends;

For the hand of God hath touched me.

Why do ye persecute me as God,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?
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!

For I know that my redeemer liveth,

And that he shall stand at the latter day upon

earth:

the

And though after my skin worms destroy this body,

Yet in my flesh shall I see God:
Whom I shall see for myself,

And mine eyes shall behold, and not another;
Though my reins be consumed within me.
But ye should say, Why persecute we him,
Seeing the root of the matter is found in me?
Be ye afraid of the sword:

For wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, That ye may know there is a judgment.

Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said, Therefore do my thoughts cause me to answer, And for this I make haste.

I have heard the check of my reproach,

And the spirit of my understanding causeth me to

answer.

Knowest thou not this of old,

Since man was placed upon earth,

That the triumphing of the wicked is short,
And the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
Though his excellency mount up to the heavens,
And his head reach unto the clouds;

Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung:
They which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be
found:

Yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.

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