The Bible (Old and New Testaments)

Surely I know your thoughts, and your unjust judgments against me.

For you say: Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?

Ask any one of them that go by the way, and you shall perceive that he knoweth these same things.

Because the wicked man is reserved to the day of destruction, and he shall be brought to the day of wrath.

Who shall reprove his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?

He shall be brought to the graves, and shall watch in the heap of the dead.

He hath been acceptable to the gravel of Cocytus, and he shall draw every man after him, and there are innumerable before him.

How then do ye comfort me in vain, whereas your answer is shewn to be repugnant to truth?

Then Eliphaz the Themanite answered, and said:

Can man be compared with God, even though he were of perfect knowledge?

What doth it profit God if thou be just? or what dost thou give him if thy way be unspotted?

Shall he reprove thee for fear, and come with thee into judgment:

And not for thy manifold wickedness and thy infinite iniquities?

For thou hast taken away the pledge of thy brethren without cause, and stripped the naked of their clothing.

Thou hast not given water to the weary, thou hast withdrawn bread from the hungry.

In the strength of thy arm thou didst possess the land, and being the most mighty thou holdest it.

Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless thou hast broken in pieces.

Therefore art thou surrounded with shares, and sudden fear troubleth thee.

And didst thou think that thou shouldst not see darkness, and that thou shouldst not be covered with the violence of overflowing waters?

Dost not thou think that God is higher than heaven, and is elevated above the height of the stars?

And thou sayest: What doth God know? and he judgeth as it were through a mist.

The clouds are his covert, and he doth not consider our things, and he walketh about the poles of heaven.

Dost thou desire to keep the path of ages, which wicked men have trodden?

Who were taken away before their time, and a flood hath overthrown their foundation.

Who said to God: Depart from us: and looked upon the Almighty as if he could do nothing:

Whereas he had filled their houses with good things: whose way of thinking be far from me.

The just shall see, and shall rejoice, and the innocent shall laugh them to scorn.

Is not their exaltation cut down, and hath not fire devoured the remnants of them?

Submit thyself then to him, and be at peace: and thereby thou shalt have the best fruits.

Receive the law of his mouth, and lay up his words in thy heart.

If thou wilt return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, and shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacle.

He shall give for earth flint, and for flint torrents of gold.

And the Almighty shall be against thy enemies, and silver shall be heaped together for thee.

Then shalt thou abound in delights in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face to God.

Thou shalt pray to him, and he will hear thee, and thou shalt pay vows.

Thou shalt decree a thing, and it shall come to thee, and light shall shine in thy ways.

For he that hath been humbled, shall be in glory: and he that shall bow down his eyes, he shall be saved.

The innocent shall be saved, and he shall be saved by the cleanness of his hands.

Then Job answered, and said:

Now also my words are in bitterness, and the hand of my scourge is more grievous than my mourning.

Who will grant me that I might know and find him, and come even to his throne?

I would set judgment before him, and would fill my mouth with complaints.

That I might know the words that he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me.

I would not that he should contend with me with much strength, nor overwhelm me with the weight of his greatness.

Let him propose equity against me, and let my judgment come to victory.

But if I go to the east, he appeareth not; if to the west, I shall not understand him.

If to the left hand, what shall I do? I shall not take hold on him: if I turn myself to the right hand, I shall not see him.

But he knoweth my way, and has tried me as gold that passeth through the fire:

My foot hath followed his steps, I have kept his way, and have not declined from it.

I have not departed from the commandments of his lips, and the words of his mouth I have hid in my bosom.

For he is alone, and no man can turn away his thought: and whatsoever his soul hath desired, that hath he done.

And when he shall have fulfilled his will in me, many other like things are also at hand with him.

And therefore I am troubled at his presence, and when I consider him I am made pensive with fear.

God hath softened my heart, and the Almighty hath troubled me.

For I have not perished because of the darkness that hangs over me, neither hath the mist covered my face.

Times are not hid from the Almighty: but they that know him, know not his days.

Some have removed landmarks, have taken away flocks by force, and fed them.

They have driven away the ass of the fatherless, and have taken away the widow's ox for a pledge.

They have overturned the way of the poor, and have oppressed together the meek of the earth.

Others like wild asses in the desert go forth to their work: by watching for a prey they get bread for their children.

They reap the field that is not their own, and gather the vintage of his vineyard whom by violence they have oppressed.

They send men away naked, taking away their clothes who have no covering in the cold:

Who are wet, with the showers of the mountains, and having no covering embrace the stones.

They have violently robbed the fatherless, and stripped the poor common people.

From the naked and them that go without clothing, and from the hungry they have taken away the ears of corn.

They have taken their rest at noon among the stores of them, who after having trodden the winepresses suffer thirst.

Out of the cities they have made men to groan, and the soul of the wounded hath cried out, and God doth not suffer it to pass unrevenged.

They have been rebellious to the light, they have not known his ways, neither have they returned by his paths.

The murderer riseth at the very break of day, he killeth the needy, and the poor man: but in the night he will be as a thief.

The eye of the adulterer observeth darkness, saying: No eye shall see me: and he will cover his face.

He diggeth through houses in the dark, as in the day they had appointed for themselves, and they have not known the light.

If the morning suddenly appear, it is to them the shadow of death: and they walk in darkness as if it were in light.

He is light upon the face of the water: cursed be his portion on the earth, let him not walk by the way of the vineyards.

Let him pass from the snow waters to excessive heat, and his sin even to hell.

Let mercy forget him: may worms be his sweetness: let him be remembered no more, but be broken in pieces as an unfruitful tree.

For he hath fed the barren that beareth not, and to the widow he hath done no good.

He hath pulled down the strong by his might: and when he standeth up, he shall not trust to his life.

God hath given him place for penance, and he abuseth it unto pride: but his eyes are upon his ways.

They are lifted up for a little while and shall not stand, and shall be brought down as all things, and shall be taken away, and as the tops of the ears of corn they shall be broken.

And if it be not so, who can convince me that I have lied, and set my words before God?

Then Baldad the Suhite answered, and I said:

Power and terror are with him, who maketh peace in his high places.

Is there any numbering of his soldiers? and upon whom shall not his light arise?

Can man be justified compared with God, or he that is born of a woman appear clean?

Behold even the moon doth not shine, and the stars are not pure in his sight.

How much less man that is rottenness and the son of man who is a worm?

Then Job answered, and said:

Whose helper art thou? is it of him that is weak? and dost thou hold up the arm of him that has no strength?

To whom hast thou given counsel? perhaps to him that hath no wisdom, and thou hast shewn thy very great prudence.

Whom hast thou desired to teach? was it not him that made life?

Behold the giants groan under the waters, and they that dwell with them.

Hell is naked before him, and there is no covering for destruction.

He stretched out the north over the empty space, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.

He bindeth up the waters in his clouds, so that they break not out and fall down together.

He withholdeth the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud over it.

He hath set bounds about the waters, till light and darkness come to an end.

The pillars of heaven tremble, and dread at his beck.

By his power the seas are suddenly gathered together, and his wisdom has struck the proud one.

His spirit hath adorned the heavens, and his obstetric hand brought forth the winding serpent.

Lo, these things are said in part of his ways: and seeing we have heard scarce a little drop of his word, who shall be able to behold the thunder of his greatness?