Job 6:1-18 ▼

1 And Job answers and says:

2 “O that my provocation were thoroughly weighed, || And my calamity in balances || They would lift up together!

3 For now it is heavier than the sands of the sea, || 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 Does a wild donkey bray over tender grass? Does an ox low over his provender?

6 Is an insipid thing eaten 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 does not spare), || That I have not hidden || The sayings of the Holy One.

11 What [is] my power that I should hope? And what [is] my end that I should prolong my life?

12 Is my strength the strength of stones? Is my flesh bronze?

13 Is my help not with me, || And substance driven from me?

14 To a despiser of his friends [is] shame, || And the fear of the Mighty he forsakes.

15 My brothers have deceived as a brook, || As a stream of brooks they pass away.

16 That are black because of ice, || By them snow hides 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 The paths turn aside of their way, || They ascend into emptiness, and are lost.