Job 23:2

would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, for it grieves me seriously for your sakes, for Yahweh’s hand has gone out against me.”

But Yahweh’s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod, and he destroyed them and struck them with tumors, even Ashdod and its borders.

But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree. Then he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough. Now, O Yahweh, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.”

“After all that has come on us for our evil deeds, and for our great guilt, since you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such a remnant,

I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

Men will clap their hands at him, and will hiss him out of his place.

For your arrows have pierced me, your hand presses hard on me.

I have proclaimed glad news of righteousness in the great assembly. Behold, I will not seal my lips, Yahweh, you know.

I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail looking for my God.

She weeps bitterly in the night. Her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her. They have become her enemies.

Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is on you, and you will be blind, not seeing the sun for a season!” Immediately a mist and darkness fell on him. He went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.

She was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to Yahweh, weeping bitterly.

Behold, my terror will not make you afraid, neither will my pressure be heavy on you.

My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”

A stone is heavy, and sand is a burden; but a fool’s provocation is heavier than both.

If you treat me this way, please kill me right now, if I have found favor in your sight; and don’t let me see my wretchedness.”

They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and they said, “Send the ark of the God of Israel away, and let it go again to its own place, that it not kill us and our people.” For there was a deadly panic throughout all the city. The hand of God was very heavy there.

Therefore you shall make images of your tumors and images of your mice that mar the land; and you shall give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will release his hand from you, from your gods, and from your land.

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected Yahweh’s word, he has also rejected you from being king.”

whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who shall each know the plague of his own heart, and spread out his hands toward this house,

His sons went and held a feast in the house of each one on his birthday; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.

It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,

so am I made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.

When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me. My couch will ease my complaint;’

I am blameless. I don’t respect myself. I despise my life.

“My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

“With God is wisdom and might. He has counsel and understanding.

“Be silent! Leave me alone, that I may speak. Let come on me what will.

Another dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good.

My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.

Lord, all my desire is before you. My groaning is not hidden from you.

The heart knows its own bitterness and joy; he will not share these with a stranger.

What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul.

Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we don’t faint.

Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.

Let’s not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don’t give up.

They said to one another, “We are certainly guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us, and we wouldn’t listen. Therefore this distress has come upon us.”

but to Hannah he gave a double portion, for he loved Hannah, but Yahweh had shut up her womb.

They gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before Yahweh, and fasted on that day, and said there, “We have sinned against Yahweh.” Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah.

“Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,

because it didn’t shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor did it hide trouble from my eyes.

But now it has come to you, and you faint. It touches you, and you are troubled.

In famine he will redeem you from death; in war, from the power of the sword.

“Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!

For now it would be heavier than the sand of the seas, therefore have my words been rash.

Do you intend to reprove words, since the speeches of one who is desperate are as wind?

When I lie down, I say, ‘When will I arise, and the night be gone?’ I toss and turn until the dawning of the day.

“Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

If I am wicked, woe to me. If I am righteous, I still will not lift up my head, being filled with disgrace, and conscious of my affliction.

that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.

“No doubt, but you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.

He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings out to light the shadow of death.

“Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would keep me secret until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time and remember me!

Have you heard the secret counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?

“Though I speak, my grief is not subsided. Though I forbear, what am I eased?

He breaks me with breach on breach. He runs at me like a giant.

If it is true that I have erred, my error remains with myself.

Isn’t your wickedness great? Neither is there any end to your iniquities.

If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring will not be satisfied with bread.

That path no bird of prey knows, neither has the falcon’s eye seen it.

(let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity);

“If there is beside him an angel, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show to man what is right for him;

For he doesn’t need to consider a man further, that he should go before God in judgment.

For he adds rebellion to his sin. He claps his hands among us, and multiplies his words against God.”

I am weary with my groaning. Every night I flood my bed. I drench my couch with my tears.

For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but Yahweh delivers him out of them all.

I am in pain and bowed down greatly. I go mourning all day long.

For I am ready to fall. My pain is continually before me.

Many, Yahweh, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts which are toward us. They can’t be declared back to you. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be counted.

You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I can’t speak.

By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us for our iniquities.

That which is crooked can’t be made straight; and that which is lacking can’t be counted.

A fool also multiplies words. Man doesn’t know what will be; and that which will be after him, who can tell him?

Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

By night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I didn’t find him.

because he didn’t kill me from the womb. So my mother would have been my grave, and her womb always great.

‘You said, “Woe is me now! For Yahweh has added sorrow to my pain! I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.” ’

One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter.

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, with which Yahweh has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.

Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

For the Lord Yahweh says: “Because you have clapped your hands, stamped with the feet, and rejoiced with all the contempt of your soul against the land of Israel;

You have magnified yourselves against me with your mouth, and have multiplied your words against me. I have heard it.”

Therefore now, Yahweh, take, I beg you, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”

“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.

What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death?