So am I made to possess months of vanity,
And wearisome nights are appointed to me.
When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise?
But the night is long;

And I am full of tossings to and fro

Unto the dawning of the day.

My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust;

My skin closeth up and breaketh out afresh.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle,
And are spent without hope.

Oh remember that my life is wind:

Mine eye shall no more see good.

The eye of him that seeth me shall behold me no more: Thine eyes shall be upon me, but I shall not be.

As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away,

So he that goeth down to the Grave" shall come up no

more.

He shall return no more to his house,

Neither shall his place know him any more.

Therefore I will not refrain my mouth;
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Am I a sea, or a sea-monster,

That thou settest a watch over me?

When I say, My bed shall comfort me,
My couch shall ease my complaint:
Then thou scarest me with dreams,

And terrifiest me through visions :
So that my soul chooseth strangling,
And death rather than these my bones.
I loathe my life;

I would not live alway;

Let me alone;

For my days are vanity.

What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him,
And that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him,
And that thou shouldest visit him every morning,
And try him every moment? 43

How long wilt thou not look away from me,

Nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?

If I have sinned, what can I do unto thee, O thou watcher of men?

Why hast thou set me as a mark for thee,

So that I am a burden to myself?

And why dost thou not pardon my transgression,

And take away mine iniquity?

For now shall I lie down in the dust;

And thou shall seek me diligently, but I shall not be!

BILDAD

How long wilt thou speak these things?

And how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a mighty wind?

Doth God pervert judgment?

Or doth the Almighty pervert justice?

If thy children have sinned against him,

And he have delivered them into the hand of their

transgression:

If thou wouldest seek diligently unto God,

And make thy supplication to the Almighty;

If thou wert pure and upright, surely now he would
awake for thee,

And make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.
And though thy beginning was small,

Yet thy latter end should greatly increase.

For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age,

And apply thyself to that which their fathers have searched

out:

(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing,

Because our days upon earth are a shadow :)

Shall not they teach thee and tell thee,

And utter words out of their heart?

viii, 2-22.

Can the rush grow up without mire?
Can the flag grow without water?

Whilst it is yet in its greenness, and not cut down,
It withereth before any other herb.

So are the paths of all that forget God;
And the hope of the godless man shall perish :

Whose confidence shall break in sunder,

And whose trust is a spider's web.

He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand:

He shall hold fast thereby, but it shall not endure. He is green before the sun, and his shoots go forth over

his garden;

His roots are wrapped about the heap, he beholdeth the place of stones.

If he be destroyed from his place,

Then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.
Behold, this is the joy of his way,

And out of the earth shall others spring.

Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man,
Neither will he uphold the evil-doers.

He will yet fill thy mouth with laughter,
And thy lips with shouting.

They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame,
And the tent of the wicked shall be no more.

Јов

Of a truth I know that it is so:
But how can man be just with God?

If he be pleased to contend with him,

He cannot answer him one of a thousand.

He is wise in heart and mighty in strength:

Who bath hardened himself against him and prospered?

Which removeth the mountains and they know it not,
When he overturneth them in his anger.

Which shaketh the earth out of her place,

And the pillars thereof tremble.

Which commandeth the sun and it riseth not;

And sealeth up the stars.

Which alone stretcheth out the heavens,

And treadeth upon the waves of the sea.

Which maketh the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,
And the chambers of the south.

Which doeth great things past finding out;
Yea, marvellous things without number.

JOB'S PRE

LIMINARY

ANSWER.

ix, 2-x, 22.