Today's Reading

Job 16-18

Job Chapter 16
1 - Then Job answered and said,
2 - I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.
3 - Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest?
4 - I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.
5 - But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief.
6 - Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?
7 - But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.
8 - And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.
9 - He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
10 - They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves together against me.
11 - God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
12 - I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.
13 - His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.
14 - He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.
15 - I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.
16 - My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
17 - Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.
18 - O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.
19 - Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.
20 - My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
21 - O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!
22 - When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

Job Chapter 17
1 - My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
2 - Are there not mockers with me? and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation?
3 - Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee; who is he that will strike hands with me?
4 - For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: therefore shalt thou not exalt them.
5 - He that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
6 - He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
7 - Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
8 - Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
9 - The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.
10 - But as for you all, do ye return, and come now: for I cannot find one wise man among you.
11 - My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
12 - They change the night into day: the light is short because of darkness.
13 - If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.
14 - I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
15 - And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?
16 - They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

Job Chapter 18
1 - Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,
2 - How long will it be ere ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.
3 - Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?
4 - He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?
5 - Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.
6 - The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.
7 - The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.
8 - For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.
9 - The gin shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall prevail against him.
10 - The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.
11 - Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.
12 - His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction shall be ready at his side.
13 - It shall devour the strength of his skin: even the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.
14 - His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.
15 - It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.
16 - His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.
17 - His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.
18 - He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.
19 - He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.
20 - They that come after him shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.
21 - Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knoweth not God.