ASV - Job Chapter 17 to 19

17 Job 17

¹My spirit is consumed, my days are extinct, The grave is ready for me. ²Surely there are mockers with me, And mine eye dwelleth upon their provocation. ³Give now a pledge, be surety for me with thyself; Who is there that will strike hands with me? ⁴For thou hast hid their heart from understanding: Therefore shalt thou not exalt them. ⁵He that denounceth his friends for a prey, Even the eyes of his children shall fail. ⁶But he hath made me a byword of the people; And they spit in my face. ⁷Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, And all my members are as a shadow. ⁸Upright men shall be astonished at this, And the innocent shall stir up himself against the godless. ⁹Yet shall the righteous hold on his way, And he that hath clean hands shall wax stronger and stronger. ¹⁰But as for you all, come on now again; And I shall not find a wise man among you. ¹¹My days are past, my purposes are broken off, Even the thoughts of my heart. ¹²They change the night into day: The light, say they, is near unto the darkness. ¹³If I look for Sheol as my house; If I have spread my couch in the darkness; ¹⁴If I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; To the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister; ¹⁵Where then is my hope? And as for my hope, who shall see it? ¹⁶It shall go down to the bars of Sheol, When once there is rest in the dust.

18 Job 18

¹Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, ²How long will ye hunt for words? Consider, and afterwards we will speak. ³Wherefore are we counted as beasts, And are become unclean in your sight? ⁴Thou that tearest thyself in thine anger, Shall the earth be forsaken for thee? Or shall the rock be removed out of its place? ⁵Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, And the spark of his fire shall not shine. ⁶The light shall be dark in his tent, And his lamp above him shall be put out. ⁷The steps of his strength shall be straitened, And his own counsel shall cast him down. ⁸For he is cast into a net by his own feet, And he walketh upon the toils. ⁹A gin shall take him by the heel, And a snare shall lay hold on him. ¹⁰A noose is hid for him in the ground, And a trap for him in the way. ¹¹Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, And shall chase him at his heels. ¹²His strength shall be hunger-bitten, And calamity shall be ready at his side. ¹³The members of his body shall be devoured, Yea, the first-born of death shall devour his members. ¹⁴He shall be rooted out of his tent where he trusteth; And he shall be brought to the king of terrors. ¹⁵There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his: Brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation. ¹⁶His roots shall be dried up beneath, And above shall his branch be cut off. ¹⁷His remembrance shall perish from the earth, And he shall have no name in the street. ¹⁸He shall be driven from light into darkness, And chased out of the world. ¹⁹He shall have neither son nor son's son among his people, Nor any remaining where he sojourned. ²⁰They that come after shall be astonished at his day, As they that went before were affrighted. ²¹Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous, And this is the place of him that knoweth not God.

19 Job 19

¹Then Job answered and said, ²How long will ye vex my soul, And break me in pieces with words? ³These ten times have ye reproached me: Ye are not ashamed that ye deal hardly with me. ⁴And be it indeed that I have erred, Mine error remaineth with myself. ⁵If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, And plead against me my reproach; ⁶Know now that God hath subverted me in my cause, And hath compassed me with his net. ⁷Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry for help, but there is no justice. ⁸He hath walled up my way that I cannot pass, And hath set darkness in my paths. ⁹He hath stripped me of my glory, And taken the crown from my head. ¹⁰He hath broken me down on every side, and I am gone; And my hope hath he plucked up like a tree. ¹¹He hath also kindled his wrath against me, And he counteth me unto him as one of his adversaries. ¹²His troops come on together, And cast up their way against me, And encamp round about my tent. ¹³He hath put my brethren far from me, And mine acquaintance are wholly estranged from me. ¹⁴My kinsfolk have failed, And my familiar friends have forgotten me. ¹⁵They that dwell in my house, and my maids, count me for a stranger; I am an alien in their sight. ¹⁶I call unto my servant, and he giveth me no answer, Though I entreat him with my mouth. ¹⁷My breath is strange to my wife, And my supplication to the children of mine own mother. ¹⁸Even young children despise me; If I arise, they speak against me. ¹⁹All my familiar friends abhor me, And they whom I loved are turned against me. ²⁰My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, And I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. ²¹Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; For the hand of God hath touched me. ²²Why do ye persecute me as God, And are not satisfied with my flesh? ²³Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! ²⁴That with an iron pen and lead They were graven in the rock for ever! ²⁵But as for me I know that my Redeemer liveth, And at last he will stand up upon the earth: ²⁶And after my skin, even this body , is destroyed, Then without my flesh shall I see God; ²⁷Whom I, even I, shall see, on my side, And mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger. My heart is consumed within me. ²⁸If ye say, How we will persecute him! And that the root of the matter is found in me; ²⁹Be ye afraid of the sword: For wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, That ye may know there is a judgment.