For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, And stripped the naked of their clothing. Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, Thou hast sent widows away empty, And the arms of the fatherless have been broken. Therefore snares are round about thee, And sudden fear troubleth thee; Or darkness, that thou canst not see; And behold the height of the stars, how high they are! And thou sayest, How doth God know? Can he judge through the dark cloud? Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not; And he walketh in the circuit of heaven. Hast thou marked the old way Which wicked men have trodden? Which were cut down out of time, Whose foundation was overflown with a flood: Which said unto God, Depart from us: But the counsel of the wicked is far from me. But the remnant of them the fire consumeth. Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, And the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks. For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, And he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows. Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: And the light shall shine upon thy ways. When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; And he shall save the humble person. He shall deliver the island of the innocent: And it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands. THEN Job answered and said, Even to day is my complaint bitter: I would order my cause before him, I would know the words which he would answer me, And understand what he would say unto me. There the righteous might dispute with him; On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: He hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: But he knoweth the way that I take: When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps, His way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? When I consider, I am afraid of him. And the Almighty troubleth me: Because I was not cut off before the darkness, face. Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, They violently take away flocks, and feed thereof. The poor of the earth hide themselves together. Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; Rising betimes for a prey: The wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children. They reap every one his corn in the field: And they gather the vintage of the wicked. They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, That they have no covering in the cold. They are wet with the showers of the mountains, And embrace the rock for want of a shelter. They pluck the fatherless from the breast, They cause him to go naked without clothing, Which make oil within their walls, And tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst. And the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them. They are of those that rebel against the light; They know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof. The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, And in the night is as a thief. The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, Saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face. In the dark they dig through houses, Which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: They know not the light. For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: If one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death. He is swift as the waters; |