The Bible (Old and New Testaments)

Shall there be none ende of wordes of winde? or what maketh thee bold so to answere?

I could also speake as yee doe: (but woulde God your soule were in my soules stead) I could keepe you company in speaking, and could shake mine head at you,

But I woulde strengthen you with my mouth, and the comfort of my lips should asswage your sorowe.

Though I speake, my sorow can not be asswaged: though I cease, what release haue I?

But now hee maketh mee wearie: O God, thou hast made all my congregation desolate,

And hast made me full of wrinkles which is a witnesse thereof, and my leannes ryseth vp in me, testifying the same in my face.

His wrath hath torne me, and hee hateth me, and gnasheth vpon mee with his teeth: mine enemie hath sharpened his eyes against me.

They haue opened their mouthes vpon me, and smitten me on the cheeke in reproch; they gather themselues together against me.

God hath deliuered me to the vniust, and hath made mee to turne out of the way by the hands of the wicked.

I was in welth, but he hath brought me to nought: he hath taken me by the necke, and beaten me, and set me as a marke for himselfe.

His archers compasse mee rounde about: he cutteth my reines, and doth not spare, and powreth my gall vpon the ground.

He hath broken me with one breaking vpon another, and runneth vpon me like a gyant.

I haue sowed a sackcloth vpon my skinne, and haue abased mine horne vnto the dust.

My face is withered with weeping, and the shadow of death is vpon mine eyes,

Though there be no wickednesse in mine hands, and my prayer be pure.

O earth, couer not thou my blood, and let my crying finde no place.

For lo, now my witnesse is in the heauen, and my record is on hie.

My friends speake eloquently against me: but mine eye powreth out teares vnto God.

Oh that a man might pleade with God, as man with his neighbour!

For the yeeres accounted come, and I shall go the way, whence I shall not returne.

My breath is corrupt: my dayes are cut off, and the graue is readie for me.

There are none but mockers with mee, and mine eye continueth in their bitternesse.

Lay downe nowe and put me in suretie for thee: who is hee, that will touch mine hand?

For thou hast hid their heart from vnderstanding: therefore shalt thou not set them vp on hie.

For the eyes of his children shall faile, that speaketh flattery to his friends.

Hee hath also made mee a byword of the people, and I am as a Tabret before them.

Mine eye therefore is dimme for griefe, and all my strength is like a shadowe.

The righteous shalbe astonied at this, and the innocent shalbe moued against ye hypocrite.

But the righteous wil holde his way, and he whose hands are pure, shall increase his strength.

All you therefore turne you, and come nowe, and I shall not finde one wise among you.

My dayes are past, mine enterprises are broken, and the thoughts of mine heart

Haue changed the nyght for the day, and the light that approched, for darkenesse.

Though I hope, yet the graue shall bee mine house, and I shall make my bed in the darke.

I shall say to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worme, Thou art my mother and my sister.

Where is then now mine hope? or who shall consider the thing, that I hoped for?

They shall goe downe into the bottome of the pit: surely it shall lye together in the dust.

Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,

When will yee make an ende of your words? cause vs to vnderstande, and then wee will speake.

Wherefore are wee counted as beastes, and are vile in your sight?

Thou art as one that teareth his soule in his anger. Shall the earth bee forsaken for thy sake? or the rocke remoued out of his place?

Yea, the light of the wicked shalbe quenched, and the sparke of his fire shall not shine.

The light shalbe darke in his dwelling, and his candle shalbe put out with him.

The steps of his strength shalbe restrained, and his owne counsell shall cast him downe.

For hee is taken in the net by his feete, and he walketh vpon the snares.

The grenne shall take him by the heele, and the theefe shall come vpon him.

A snare is layed for him in the ground, and a trappe for him in the way.

Fearefulnesse shall make him afrayde on euery side, and shall driue him to his feete.

His strength shalbe famine: and destruction shalbe readie at his side.

It shall deuoure the inner partes of his skinne, and the first borne of death shall deuoure his strength.

His hope shalbe rooted out of his dwelling, and shall cause him to go to the King of feare.

Feare shall dwell in his house (because it is not his) and brimstone shalbe scattered vpon his habitation.

His rootes shalbe dryed vp beneath, and aboue shall his branche be cut downe.

His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall haue no name in the streete.

They shall driue him out of the light vnto darkenesse, and chase him out of the world.

Hee shall neither haue sonne nor nephewe among his people, nor any posteritie in his dwellings.

The posteritie shalbe astonied at his day, and feare shall come vpon the ancient.

Surely such are the habitations of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.

Bvt Iob answered, and said,

Howe long will yee vexe my soule, and torment me with wordes?

Ye haue now ten times reproched me, and are not ashamed: ye are impudent toward mee.

And though I had in deede erred, mine errour remaineth with me.

But in deede if ye will aduance your selues against me, and rebuke me for my reproche,

Know nowe, that God hath ouerthrowen me, and hath compassed me with his net.

Beholde, I crie out of violence, but I haue none answere: I crie, but there is no iudgement.

Hee hath hedged vp my way that I cannot passe, and he hath set darkenesse in my paths.

Hee hath spoyled mee of mine honour, and taken the crowne away from mine head.

He hath destroyed mee on euery side and I am gone: and he hath remoued mine hope like a tree.

And he hath kindled his wrath against me, and counteth mee as one of his enemies.

His armies came together, and made their way vpon me, and camped about my tabernacle.

He hath remooued my brethre farre from me, and also mine acquaintance were strangers vnto me.

My neighbours haue forsaken me, and my familiars haue forgotten me.

They that dwel in mine house, and my maydes tooke me for a stranger: for I was a stranger in their sight.

I called my seruant, but he would not answere, though I prayed him with my mouth.

My breath was strange vnto my wife, though I prayed her for the childrens sake of mine owne body.

The wicked also despised mee, and when I rose, they spake against me.

All my secret friends abhorred me, and they whome I loued, are turned against me.

My bone cleaueth to my skinne and to my flesh, and I haue escaped with the skinne of my teeth.

Haue pitie vpon me: haue pitie vpon me, (O yee my friendes) for the hande of God hath touched me.

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

Oh that my wordes were nowe written! oh that they were written euen in a booke,

And grauen with an yron pen in lead, or in stone for euer!

For I am sure, that my Redeemer liueth, and he shall stand the last on the earth.

And though after my skin wormes destroy this bodie, yet shall I see God in my flesh.

Whome I my selfe shall see, and mine eyes shall beholde, and none other for me, though my reynes are consumed within me.

But yee sayde, Why is hee persecuted? And there was a deepe matter in me.

Be ye afraide of the sworde: for the sworde will be auenged of wickednesse, that yee may knowe that there is a iudgement.

Then answered Zophar the Naamathite and saide,

Doubtlesse my thoughts cause me to answere, and therefore I make haste.

I haue heard the correction of my reproch: therefore the spirite of mine vnderstanding causeth me to answere.

Knowest thou not this of olde? and since God placed man vpon the earth,

That the reioycing of the wicked is short, and that the ioy of hypocrites is but a moment?

Though his excellencie mount vp to the heauen, and his head reache vnto the cloudes,

Yet shall hee perish for euer, like his dung, and they which haue seene him, shall say, Where is hee?

He shall flee away as a dreame, and they shall not finde him, and shall passe away as a vision of the night,

So that the eye which had seene him, shall do so no more, and his place shall see him no more.

His children shall flatter the poore, and his hands shall restore his substance.

His bones are full of the sinne of his youth, and it shall lie downe with him in the dust.

When wickednesse was sweete in his mouth, and he hid it vnder his tongue,

And fauoured it, and would not forsake it, but kept it close in his mouth,

Then his meat in his bowels was turned: the gall of Aspes was in the middes of him.