Job 7-8

American Standard Version

7 Is there not a ^[a]warfare to man upon earth?
And are not his days like the days of a hireling?
² As a servant that earnestly desireth the shadow,
And as a hireling that looketh for his wages:
³ So am I made to possess months of misery,
And wearisome nights are appointed to me.
⁴ When I lie down, I say,
When shall I arise, and the night be gone?
And I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.
⁵ My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust;
My skin ^[b]closeth up, and breaketh out afresh.
⁶ My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
And are spent without hope.
⁷ Oh remember that my life is a breath:
Mine eye shall no more see good.
⁸ The eye of him that seeth me shall behold me no more;
Thine eyes shall be upon me, but I shall not be.
⁹ As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away,
So he that goeth down to Sheol shall come up no more.
¹⁰ He shall return no more to his house,
Neither shall his place know him any more.

¹¹ Therefore I will not refrain my mouth;
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
¹² Am I a sea, or a sea-monster,
That thou settest a watch over me?
¹³ When I say, My bed shall comfort me,
My couch shall ease my complaint;
¹⁴ Then thou scarest me with dreams,
And terrifiest me through visions:
¹⁵ So that my soul chooseth strangling,
And death rather than these my bones.
^16 [c]I loathe my life; I ^[d]would not live alway:
Let me alone; for my days are ^[e]vanity.
¹⁷ What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him,
And that thou shouldest set thy mind upon him,
¹⁸ And that thou shouldest visit him every morning,
And try him every moment?
¹⁹ How long wilt thou not look away from me,
Nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?
²⁰ If I have sinned, what ^[f]do I unto thee, O thou ^[g]watcher of men?
Why hast thou set me as a mark for thee,
So that I am a burden to myself?
²¹ And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity?
For now shall I lie down in the dust;
And thou wilt seek me diligently, but I shall not be.

² How long wilt thou speak these things?
And how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a mighty wind?
³ Doth God pervert justice?
Or doth the Almighty pervert righteousness?
^4 [h]If thy children have sinned against him,
And he hath delivered them into the hand of their transgression;
⁵ If thou wouldest seek diligently unto God,
And make thy supplication to the Almighty;
⁶ If thou wert pure and upright:
Surely now he would awake for thee,
And make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.
⁷ And though thy beginning was small,
Yet thy latter end would greatly increase.

⁸ For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age,
And apply thyself to that which their fathers have searched out
⁹ (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing,
Because our days upon earth are a shadow);
¹⁰ Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee,
And utter words out of their heart?

¹¹ Can the ^[i]rush grow up without mire?
Can the ^[j]flag grow without water?
¹² Whilst it is yet in its greenness, and not cut down,
It withereth before any other herb.
¹³ So are the paths of all that forget God;
And the hope of the godless man shall perish:
¹⁴ Whose confidence shall ^[k]break in sunder,
And whose trust is a spider’s ^[l]web.
¹⁵ He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand:
He shall hold fast thereby, but it shall not endure.
¹⁶ He is green before the sun,
And his shoots go forth over his garden.
¹⁷ His roots are wrapped ^[m]about the stone-heap,
He beholdeth the place of stones.
¹⁸ If he be destroyed from his place,
Then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.
¹⁹ Behold, this is the joy of his way;
And out of the ^[n]earth shall others spring.
²⁰ Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man,
Neither will he uphold the evil-doers.
^21 [o]He will yet fill thy mouth with laughter,
And thy lips with shouting.
²² They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame;
And the tent of the wicked shall be no more.