Before
CHRIST,
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there is none like him on the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and shunneth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.
4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, even, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
5 But put forth thy hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
6 And the LORD said to Satan, Behold, he is in thy hand; but save his life.
7 So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to his crown.
8 And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself with it; and he sat down among the ashes.
9 ¶ Then said his wife to him, Dost thou still retain thy integrity? curse God, and die.
10 But he said to her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
11 ¶ Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him, and to comfort him.
12 And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they raised their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads towards heaven.
13 So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word to him: for they saw that his grief was very great.
CHAP. III
1 Job curseth the day and services of his birth. 13 The ease of death. 20 He complaineth of life, because of his anguish.
AFTER this Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day.
2 And Job spoke, and said,
3 Let the day perish in which I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.
4 Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
5 Let darkness and the shades of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
6 As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined to the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.
7 Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.
8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.
9 Let the stars of its twilight be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:
10 Because it prevented not my birth, nor hid sorrow from my eyes.
11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not expire at the time of my birth?
12 Why did the knees receive me? or why the breasts that I should be nursed?
13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
14 With kings and counselors of the earth, who built desolate places for themselves;
15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:
16 Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
17 There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary are at rest.
18 There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
19 The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.
20 Why is light given to him that is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul;
21 Who long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
22 Who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?
24 For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
25 For the thing which I greatly feared hath come upon me, and that which I dreaded hath come to me.
26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.
CHAP. IV
1 Eliphaz reproveth Job for want of religion: 7 He teacheth God's judgments to be not for the righteous, but for the wicked: 12 His fearful vision to humble the excellencies of creatures before God.
THEN Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
2 If we essay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can refrain from speaking?
3 Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands.
4 Thy words have upheld him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees.
5 But now it hath come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.
6 Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?
7 Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off;
8 Even as I have seen, they that plow
