their eyes from afar, and they knew him not, and they raised their voices and wept, and they tore each man his mantle, and they sprinkled dust on 13 their heads towards heaven. And they sat with him on the earth seven days and seven nights, and none spake to him a word, for they saw that the affliction was very great. CHAP. III. 1 AFTER this Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day. 2 And Job spake and said,— 3 Perish the day in which I was born, And the night when it was said a man is brought forth. 4 Let that day be darkness; May God not regard it from above, Nor cause a ray of light to shine on it. 5 Let darkness claim it, and the shade of death: Let clouds dwell on it, And make it dreadful as a day of bitterness. 6 That night-let thick darkness seize it; Let it not be joined to the days of the year, 7 Lo! that night shall be a desolate rock,* No voice of mirth shall enter it. 8 It shall be cursed, as the (natal) day Of him who is about to rouze the crocodile.† 9 Be darkened the stars of its morning breeze; Let it expect light, and there is none, And let it not see the eyelids of the dawn : 10 Because it shut not the doors of the womb, To hide affliction from mine eyes. 11 Why did I not die from the womb? Come forth, and expire? * Let (the darkness of) that night be (solid as) as a rock. Let not a vibration (of light) enter it. + Let them curse it who curse the day, Of those who are about to rouze the crocodile. Parkhurst. 12 Why did the knees prevent me? And why the breasts, that I should suck? 13 For then I should have been still, and been at peace, I should have slept,—then had I been at rest: 14 (With kings and rulers of the earth, Who build for themselves great sepulchres; 15 Or with princes who have store of gold, Who fill their houses with silver; 16 Or like an untimely birth, I had not been, Like children which never see the light:) 17 There the wicked cease to trouble, And there the weary rest. 18 The prisoners sleep together, They hear not the voice of the oppressor. 19 The small and the great are there, 20 Why is light given to the afflicted? And life to the bitter in soul? 21 (Who long for death, and it is not, They would dig for it rather than for hidden treasure; 22 Who rejoice, and shake with joy, When they have found the grave:) 23 To the man whose way is hid, And God hath hedged him in? 24 My sighing is instead of bread, And my complaint is poured out like water. 25 For I feared a fear, and it approached me. And what I shrunk from came upon me. 26 Was I not in safety? Was I not at peace? Was I not at rest?-Yet trouble came. CHAP. IV. 1 AND Eliphaz the Temanite spake and said, 2 If one attempt to speak, wilt not thou be weary? Yet who can restrain his words? 3 Behold, thou hast corrected many, And strengthened the feeble hands; 4 The stumbling, thy words have set up, 5 But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; It has reached even to thee, and thou art terrified. 6 Is this thy reverence, thy confidence, Thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways? 7 Call to mind now, who is the innocent that perished? And when were the righteous cut off? 8 So far as I have seen, they who plough wickedness And sow affliction, reap the same: 9 By the blast of GOD they perish, By the breath of his nostrils they are consumed. 10 The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the black lion, And the teeth of the young lions are disappointed; 11 The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, And the sons of the lioness are scattered. |