Job 6:1 - 7:21 - Legacy Standard Bible

Job 6:1 - 7:21

Job Answers Eliphaz

Then Job answered and said, 2

“Oh that my vexation were actually weighed

And laid in the balances together with my destruction!

For then it would be heavier than the sand of the seas;

Therefore my words have been rash.

For the arrows of the Almighty are within me,

Their poison my spirit drinks;

The horrors of God are arranged against me.

Does the wild donkey bray over his grass,

Or does the ox low over his fodder?

Can something tasteless be eaten without salt,

Or is there any taste in the slime of a yolk?

My soul refuses to touch them;

They are like loathsome food to me.

“Oh that my request might come to pass,

And that God would grant my hope!

Would that God were willing to crush me,

That He would release His hand and cut me off!

But it is still my comfort,

And I rejoice in unsparing pain,

That I have not at all hidden away the words of the Holy One.

What is my strength, that I should wait?

And what is my end, that I should endure?

Is my strength the strength of stones,

Or is my flesh bronze?

Is it that there is no help within me,

And that the success of sound wisdom is driven from me?

“For the despairing man lovingkindness should be from his friend;

But he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

My brothers have betrayed me like a wadi,

Like the torrents of wadis which pass away,

Which grow dark because of ice

And upon which the snow hides itself.

When they become waterless, they are silent;

When it is hot, they vanish from their place.

The paths of their course wind along;

They go up into a formless place and perish.

The caravans of Tema looked;

The travelers of Sheba hoped for them.

They were ashamed for they had trusted;

They came there and were humiliated.

Indeed, you have now become such;

You see a terror and are afraid.

Have I said, ‘Give me something,’

Or, ‘Offer a bribe for me from your wealth,’

Or, ‘Give me escape from the hand of the adversary,’

Or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of the ruthless men’?

“Instruct me, and I will be silent;

And cause me to understand how I have erred.

How painful are upright words!

But what does your reproof prove?

Do you think to reprove my words,

Or think of the words of one in despair as wind?

You would even cast lots for the orphans

And bargain over your friend.

So now be willing to face me,

And see if I lie to your face.

Now turn from this, let there be no unrighteousness;

Even turn from this, my righteousness is yet in it.

Is there unrighteousness on my tongue?

Cannot my palate discern destruction?

“Is not man conscripted to labor on earth,

And are not his days like the days of a hired man?

As a slave who pants for the shade,

And as a hired man who eagerly hopes for his wages,

So am I apportioned months of worthlessness,

And nights of trouble are appointed me.

If I lie down I say,

‘When shall I arise?’

But the twilight continues,

And I am saturated with tossing until dawn.

My flesh is clothed with worms and a crust of dirt;

My skin scabs over and flows out again.

My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,

And come to an end without hope.

“Remember that my life is but wind;

My eye will not again see good.

The eye of him who sees me will behold me no longer;

Your eyes will be on me, but I will not be.

A cloud vanishes, and it is gone,

So he who goes down to Sheol does not come up.

He will not return again to his house,

Nor will his place recognize him anymore.

“Indeed I will not hold back my mouth;

I will speak in the distress of my spirit;

I will muse on the bitterness of my soul.

Am I the sea or the sea monster,

That You set a guard over me?

If I say, ‘My bed will comfort me;

My couch will ease my bitter musing,’

Then You frighten me with dreams

And terrify me by visions,

So that my soul would choose suffocation,

Death rather than my pains.

I have rejected everything; I will not live forever.

Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

What is man that You magnify him,

And that You set Your heart on him,

That You examine him every morning

And test him every moment?

Will You never turn Your gaze away from me,

Nor let me alone until I swallow my spit?

Have I sinned? What have I done to You,

O watcher of men?

Why have You set me as Your target,

So that I am a burden to myself?

Why then do You not forgive my transgression

And take away my iniquity?

For now I will lie down in the dust;

And You will seek me earnestly, but I will not be.”