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Job's Protest and Despair

Job 6:1-7:21

6
Chapter 6
1 Job answered and said: 2 If only my vexation were weighed—it would be weighed with him. My calamity and my suffering together they would lift in scales. 3 For now the sand of days is heavy; therefore words to Le'ū. 4 For the arrows of Shaddai are in me, whose poison their wrath drinks up; the terrors that God sends against me. 5 Does a wild donkey bray over fresh grass? Does an ox low over its fodder? 6 Does one eat insipid food without salt? Or is there taste in slippery dreams? 7 My vital life force refuses to touch them; they are like loathsome food to my bread. 8 Who will grant my request, and God will grant my hope? 9 And may God be willing and crush me; may his hand utterly shatter me. 10 And it will still be my comfort, and I will exult in anguish—it will not spare, for I have not denied the words of the Holy One. 11 What is my strength, that I should wait? And what is my end, that I should prolong my nephesh? 12 If the power of stones is my power, if my flesh is bronze. 13 Is there not my help with me, and soundness driven away from me? 14 To the one who withholds kindness from his companion and the fear of Shaddai—he abandons. 15 My brothers have betrayed me like a wadi, like a channel of wadis. They pass over. 16 The dark ones from Korah—it hides itself upon them—snow. 17 At the time they are poured out, their channel is scorched; in the heat they are extinguished from their place. 18 They turn aside from their path; they go up into the tohu and perish. 19 Look at the ways of Tema, the ways of Sheba; they wait for them. 20 They were ashamed, for they trusted and came to nothing, and they dug. 21 For now you have become like him—you see terror and fear. 22 Is it that I said, "Give to me and from your power bribe on my behalf"? 23 Or, "Deliver me from the hand of the enemy and from the hand of the tyrants; redeem me"? 24 Teach me, and I will be silent; and if I have erred, make me understand it. 25 How are upright words made forceful? And how does rebuke from you reprove? 26 Do you reckon words convict, and words of despair to the spirit? 27 You even cast lots over an orphan and bargain over your companion. 28 And now, please be willing—turn to me, and it will not be wrong: if I have deceived. 29 Return now—do not be unjust, and return still to my righteousness in it. 30 Is there injustice on my tongue? Or does my palate not discern ruin?
7
Chapter 7
1 Is not service to man on earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired servant? 2 Like a servant who pants for the shadow, and like a hired man who waits for his work. 3 In this way I have inherited for myself months of emptiness, and nights of suffering they have numbered for me. 4 If I lie down, I say, "When will I arise, and evening stretches?" and I am sated with tossings until darkness. 5 My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin trembles and is loathed. 6 My days have passed faster than a weaver's shuttle, and they have finished in nothingness—hope. 7 Remember that my spirit will not return; my eye will not see good. 8 "You will not look on me; the eye that sees me will see me no more." 9 A cloud passes and goes away; so one who goes down to Sheol will not ascend. 10 He will not return to his house again, nor will his place see him again. 11 Also, I will not restrain my mouth. I will speak in the distress of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my nephesh. 12 Am I a sea or a sea-monster that you set a detention over me? 13 For I said, "My couch will comfort me; my bed will bear my sighing." 14 Then you terrify me with dreams and dismay me with visions. 15 So she chooses strangling instead of my soul, death from my bones. 16 I will not reject forever. I will cease living because of הבל my days. 17 What is man that you magnify him and that you set your heart on him? 18 And you visit him every morning and test him every moment. 19 How long will you not look away from me or let your hand grow slack from me until you swallow me up, you who see me as mere breath? 20 I have sinned—what will I do for you, O watcher of Adam? Why have you set me as a target for yourself, and why do I become a burden to myself? 21 And why do you not bear my transgression and pass over my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust, and you will seek me, but I will not be.