CHAP. VI.

1 AND Job spake and said,

2 Othat my vexation and mine affliction were weighed, Lifted up together in the scales!

3 For now it is heavier than the sand of the sea, Therefore my words fail.

4 The arrows of the ALMIGHTY are in me, Their poison drinketh up my spirit;

The horrors of GOD array themselves against me.

5* Doth the wild ass bray over the grass?

Or the ox low over his fodder?

6 Will the insipid be eaten, because there is no salt? Is there any taste in the drivel of dreams?

*So, Should I complain if nothing ailed me? And shall I take the insipid comfort you offer me, for want of better? No.

7 My soul refuses to touch them: They are like insipid food.

8 O that my earnest request might be fulfilled, And that God would grant my desire!

9 That GOD would resolve, and crush me, Turn his hand, and destroy me!

10 Then should I have comfort again,

I would exult in my agony.

Let him not spare, because I have not concealed
The words of the Holy One.

11 What is my strength, that I should endure?

And what my end, that I should lengthen out my life?

12 Is my strength as the strength of stones?

14 To him who despiseth his friend, it is a reproach, And he will forsake the fear of the ALMIGHTY.

C

15 My brethren have deceived like a torrent,

Like the overflowing of torrents have they passed

away;

16 Which come black* from the ice,
The snow is concealed in their depths;

17 What time they wax warm, they vanish, In the heat they fail from their place;

18 The paths of their way are dried up,
They are risen into space, and have perished;

19 The caravans of Tema look eagerly, The travellers of Saba long for them;

20 They are confounded, for it was their hope, They came there-and their countenance fell.

21 So ye are become nothing,

Ye shall see destruction, and ye shall fear.

22 Is it because I said, Bring to me (a present) Or of your substance, give a bribe for me?

*Black, because deep.

23 And deliver me from the hand of the oppressor, And from the hand of the terrible, redeem me?

24 Teach me, and I will be silent,

Make me to discern wherein I have erred.

25 How forcible are upright words,

But what doth your arguing reprove?

26 Do ye think to reprove (empty) words?

And speeches (uttered only) to give vent to grief?

27 Certainly ye fall upon the innocent, And compass about your friend.

28 But now come between,* look upon me, And on your faces, whether I lye.

29 Return now, let there be no offence, And I will turn again, I am sincere.

30 Is there arrogance on my tongue?
Can my palate+ not discern an insult?

* Come between-as an impartial judge.

†The palate's discernment of tastes is a figure for the mind's discernment of ideas.

CHAP. VII.

1 IS not man a soldier on earth?

And his days like the days of an hireling?

2 As the servant panting for the shade of night, And as the hireling longing for the reward of his labour,

3 So am I made to inherit months of vanity, And nights of trouble are numbered me.

4 If I lie down, I say, When shall I arise? And the evening is lengthened out,

And I am weary with tossing till the morning breeze.

5 The clothing of my flesh is worms, and dust that cleaves to it.

My skin cracks, and peels off.

6 My days are swifter than a shuttle, They are finished for want of thread.