1: And Job answereth and saith: -- 2: O that my provocation were thoroughly weighed, And my calamity in balances They would lift up together! 3: For now, than the sands of the sea it is heavier, Therefore my words have been rash. 4: For arrows of the Mighty [are] with me, Whose poison is drinking up my spirit. Terrors of God array themselves [for] me! 5: Brayeth a wild ass over tender grass? Loweth an ox over his provender? 6: Eaten is an insipid thing without salt? Is there sense in the drivel of dreams? 7: My soul is refusing to touch! They [are] as my sickening food. 8: O that my request may come, That God may grant my hope! 9: That God would please -- and bruise me, Loose His hand and cut me off! 10: And yet it is my comfort, (And I exult in pain -- He doth not spare,) That I have not hidden The sayings of the Holy One. 11: What [is] my power that I should hope? And what mine end That I should prolong my life? 12: Is my strength the strength of stones? Is my flesh brazen? 13: Is not my help with me, And substance driven from me? 14: To a despiser of his friends [is] shame, And the fear of the Mighty he forsaketh. 15: My brethren have deceived as a brook, As a stream of brooks they pass away. 16: That are black because of ice, By them doth snow hide itself. 17: By the time they are warm they have been cut off, By its being hot they have been Extinguished from their place. 18: Turn aside do the paths of their way, They ascend into emptiness, and are lost. 19: Passengers of Tema looked expectingly, Travellers of Sheba hoped for them. 20: They were ashamed that one hath trusted, They have come unto it and are confounded. 21: Surely now ye have become the same! Ye see a downfall, and are afraid. 22: Is it because I said, Give to me? And, By your power bribe for me? 23: And, Deliver me from the hand of an adversary? And, From the hand of terrible ones ransom me? 24: Shew me, and I -- I keep silent, And what I have erred, let me understand. 25: How powerful have been upright sayings, And what doth reproof from you reprove? 26: For reproof -- do you reckon words? And for wind -- sayings of the desperate. 27: Anger on the fatherless ye cause to fall, And are strange to your friend. 28: And, now, please, look upon me, Even to your face do I lie? 29: Turn back, I pray you, let it not be perverseness, Yea, turn back again -- my righteousness [is] in it. 30: Is there in my tongue perverseness? Discerneth not my palate desirable things?
