08 January - Job 17-20

Jude Sat Aug 18, 2018 4:00 am

My soul doth magnify my YAH, and my spirit hath rejoiced in EL my Saviour; For HE that is mighty hath done to me great things; and Holy is HIS Name. Now unto HIM who is ever present in my helpless estate; who is able to keep me from falling and to present me faultless before the presence of His Glory with exceeding joy, unto the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only wise EL our Saviour be honour and glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and for ever Halleluyah!

JOB 17

1“My spirit has been broken, my days have been extinguished, graves are for me.

2Truly, mockeries are with me, and my eye rests on their insults!

3Please lay down a pledge for me with Yourself. Who would strike hands with me?

4For You have hidden their heart from understanding, therefore You do not exalt them.

5He who denounces friends for a share, even the eyes of his children shall fail.

6But He has made me a byword of the people, whereas in former times I was as a drum.

7And from sorrow my eye has grown dim, and all my members are like shadows.

8Upright ones are astonished at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the defiled one.

9And the righteous holds to his way, and he who has clean hands becomes stronger and stronger.

10But please, come back again, all of you, for I do not find a wise one among you.

11My days have passed by, my plans have been broken off – the desires of my heart.

12They would turn night into day, saying that light is near, in the presence of darkness!

13If I wait – the grave is my house, I shall make my bed in darkness,

14I shall say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ – to the worm, ‘You are my mother and my sister.’

15Where then is my expectancy? As for my expectancy, who would see it?

16Would it sink down into the grave? Would we together go down into the dust?”

JOB 18

1And Bildaḏ the Shuḥite answered and said,

2“When do you put an end to words? Understand, and let us then talk.

3Why should we be reckoned as beasts, as stupid in your eyes?

4You who tear yourself to pieces in displeasure – would the earth be forsaken for your sake? Or the rock move from its place?

5Indeed, the light of the wrong goes out, and the flame of his fire does not shine.

6The light shall be dark in his tent, and his lamp beside him is put out.

7The steps of his strength are impeded, and his own counsel overthrows him.

8For he is sent into a net by his own feet, and he walks on a pit-fall.

9The net seizes his heel, a snare prevails over him.

10A noose is hidden on the ground for him, and a trap for him in the path.

11Alarms frighten him on all sides, and chase him at his heels.

12His strength is starved, and calamity is ready at his side.

13It devours parts of his skin, the first-born of death devours his parts.

14He is torn from the shelter of his tent, and they parade him before the sovereign of alarms.

15In his tent dwells that which is none of his; brimstone is scattered on his house.

16His roots below dry up, and his branch is cut off above.

17Remembrance of him perishes from the earth, and he has no name on the street.

18They thrust him from light into darkness, and chase him out of the world.

19He leaves no offspring or descendant among his people, nor any survivor in his dwellings.

20Those in the west are astonished at his day, as those in the east are frightened.

21Indeed, such are the dwellings of the perverse, and this is the place of him who does not know Ěl.”

JOB 19

1And Iyoḇ answered and said,

2“How long would you grieve my life, and crush me with words?

3These ten times you have insulted me, shamelessly you attack me.

4Even if I have truly gone astray, my straying remains with me.

5If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me, and plead against me my reproach,

6know then that Eloah has overthrown me, and has surrounded me with His net.

7See, I cry, ‘Violence!’ but I am not heard. I cry aloud, but there is no right-ruling.

8He has fenced up my way, and I pass not over. And He has placed darkness in my paths.

9He has stripped me of my esteem, and taken the crown from my head.

10He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; and uproots my expectancy like a tree.

11And He kindled His wrath against me, and He counts me as one of His enemies.

12His companies come together, and they cast up their way against me, and encamp all around my tent.

13He has removed my brothers far away from me, and my friends are completely estranged from me.

14My near ones have fallen away, and my close friends have forgotten me.

15The guests in my house, and my female servants, reckon me for a stranger – I am a foreigner in their eyes.

16I have called my servant, but he gives no answer – I have to beg him with my mouth.

17My spirit is strange to my wife, and my kindness to the children of my own body.

18Even young children have scorned me. I rise, and they speak against me.

19All my intimate friends loathe me, and those whom I love have turned against me.

20My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

21Show favour to me, show favour to me, O you my friends, for the hand of Eloah has struck me!

22Why do you persecute me like Ěl does, and are not satisfied with my flesh?

23Oh, that my words were written down! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book,

24engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead, forever!

25For I know that my Redeemer lives, and as the Last shall rise over the dust;

26and after my skin has been struck off, then in my flesh I shall see Eloah,

27whom I myself shall see on my side, and not a stranger. My kidneys have failed within me!

28If you say, ‘Why do we persecute him?’ Seeing the root of the matter has been found in me,

29fear the sword yourselves, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, so that you know there is a judgment.”

JOB 20

1Then Tsophar the Na‛amathite answered and said,

2“Truly, my thoughts make me respond, even because of my haste within me.

3I have listened to the reproof which insults me, and the spirit of my understanding makes me answer.

4You have known this of old, since man was placed on earth,

5that the singing of the wrong is short-lived, and the joy of the defiled one is but for a moment?

6Although his pride mounts up to the heavens, and his head does reach to the clouds,

7he perishes forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him say, ‘Where is he?’

8He flies away like a dream, and is not found. And he is driven away like a vision of the night.

9Eyes that saw him do so no more, nor does his place see him any more.

10His sons seek the favour of the poor, and his hands give back his wealth.

11His bones shall be filled with his youth, but it lies down with him in the dust.

12Though evil is sweet in his mouth, he hides it under his tongue,

13though he fondles it and does not forsake it, but still keeps it in his mouth,

14his food is turned in his stomach, the bitterness of cobras is in him.

15He has swallowed down riches, then vomits them up – Ěl drives it out of his stomach.

16He sucks the poison of cobras; the tongue of the poisonous snake slays him.

17He looks not on streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream.

18He is giving back what he laboured for, and does not eat it – like wealth from his trade, but he does not enjoy.

19For he has oppressed, he has forsaken the poor, he has seized a house which he did not build.

20For he shall not know ease in his innermost, neither save what he desires.

21There is no left-over after he has eaten, therefore his good does not last.

22With all his plenty he is in distress; the hand of every labourer comes against him.

23It shall be, at the filling of his stomach, that He casts on him His burning wrath, and rains it down on him while he is eating.

24He shall flee from the iron weapon, a bronze bow pierce him through.

25It is drawn, and comes out of the body, and the gleaming point comes out of his gall. Fears come upon him.

26All darkness waits for his treasures. A fire not blown consumes him, it destroys what remains in his tent.

27The heavens reveal his crookedness, and the earth rises up against him.

28The increase of his house departs, flowing away in the day of His wrath.

29This is the portion from Elohim for a wrong man, and the heritage Ěl has decreed for him.”