JOB.
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 deal hardly with me.
And if indeed 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 wronged me in my cause,
And hath compassed me with his net.
Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard:
I cry for help, but there is no judgment.
He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass,
And hath set darkness in my paths.
He hath put my brethren far from me,
And mine acquaintance are wholly estranged from me.
My kinsfolk have failed,
And my familiar friends have forgotten me.
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 inscribed in a book!
That with an iron pen and lead
They were graven in the rock for ever!
But I know that my redeemer liveth, [{201}] And that he shall stand up at the last upon the earth:
And after my skin hath been thus destroyed,
Yet from my flesh shall I see God:
Whom I shall see for myself,
And mine eyes shall behold, and not another.
ZOPHAR.
Knowest thou not this of old time,
Since man was placed upon earth,
That the triumphing of the wicked is short,
And the joy of the godless but for a moment?
Though his excellency mount up to the heavens,
And his head reach unto the clouds;
He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found:
Yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.
The eye which saw him shall see him no more;
Neither shall his place any more behold him.
For he hath oppressed and forsaken the poor;
He hath violently taken away an house, and he shall not build it up.
Because he knew no quietness within him,
He shall not save aught of that wherein he delighteth.
There was nothing left that he devoured not;
Therefore his prosperity shall not endure.
In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits:
The hand of everyone that is in misery shall come upon him.
The heavens shall reveal his iniquity,
And the earth shall rise up against him. [{202}] The increase of his house shall depart,
His goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.
This is the portion of a wicked man from God,
And the heritage appointed unto him by God.
JOB.
Hear diligently my speech;
And let this be your consolations.
Suffer me, and I also will speak;
And after that I have spoken, mock on.
As for me, is my complaint to man?
And why should I not be impatient?
Wherefore do the wicked live,
Become old, yea, wax mighty in power?
Their seed is established with them in their sight,
And their offspring before their eyes.
Their houses are safe from fear,
Neither is the rod of God upon them.
They send forth their little ones like a flock,
And their children dance.
They sing to the timbrel and harp,
And rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
They spend their days in prosperity,
And in a moment they go down to Sheol.
Yet they said unto God, "Depart from us;
For we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? [{203}] And what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?"
Lo, their prosperity is not in their hand:
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
How oft is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?
That their calamity cometh upon them?
That God distributeth sorrows in his anger?
That they are as stubble before the wind,
And as chaff that the storm carrieth away?
Ye say, God layeth up his iniquity for his children.
Let him recompense it unto himself, that he may know it.
Let his own eyes see his destruction,
And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
For what pleasure hath he in his house after him,
When the number of his months is cut off in the midst?
Shall any teach God knowledge?
Seeing he judgeth those that are high.
One dieth in his full strength,
Being wholly at ease and quiet:
And another dieth in bitterness of soul,
And never tasteth of good.
They lie down alike in the dust,
And the worm covereth them.
Behold, I know your thoughts,
And the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me.
For ye say, Where is the house of the tyrant?
And where is the tent wherein the wicked dwelt? [{204}] Have ye not asked them that go by the way?
And do ye not know their tokens?
That the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity?
That they are led forth to the day of wrath?
Who shall declare his way to his face?
And who shall repay him what he hath done?
Yet shall he be borne to the grave,
And shall keep watch over the tomb.
The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him,
And all men shall draw after him,
As there were innumerable before him.
How then comfort ye me in vain,
Seeing in your answers there remaineth only falsehood?
THE SECOND CYCLE OF SPEECHES IS ENDED.
In the first cycle, the three friends had tried to bring Job to their idea of God, and had failed. Now they center their thought about the wicked man,--how his wickedness brings suffering. Eliphaz says that all men know that the wicked suffer. Bildad says that the very order of nature is such that the wicked suffer. Zophar says that, even if the wicked have any prosperity, it is short, and the end is suffering. All this is to rouse the conscience of Job to believe that he is suffering for his sins. Job, overwhelmed by their lack of sympathy, at first does not try to meet their arguments, but continues his complaint and prayer to God. Zophar's speech arouses him to answer, and he says Zophar does not speak the truth. The wicked live and die as happily as the righteous.
The real argument is ended. The friends have tried to show that Job suffers because he has sinned. They have come to the question from the side of God and from the side of man; and in each case Job has denied their position. Nothing is left but to charge Job directly with sin.