- 1
- Iob aunswered, & saide:
- 2
- I haue oft times heard such thinges: miserable geuers of comfort are ye all the sort of you.
- 3
- Shall not vaine wordes come yet to an ende?
Or what maketh thee bolde so to aunswere?
- 4
- I coulde speake as ye do also: but would God that your soule were in my soules steade, then could I frame wordes for you, and shake my head at you:
- 5
- I shoulde comfort you with my mouth, & releasse your paine with the talking of my lippes.
- 6
- For all my wordes my sorowe wyll not ceasse: And though I holde my tongue, what am I eased?
- 7
- But now that [God] hath sent me aduersitie, thou hast troubled al my congregation.
- 8
- And that thou hast filled me with wrinckles my fleshe is recorde, and my leanenesse ryseth vp against me and beareth witnes thereof in my face.
- 9
- His wrath hath torne [me] he hateth me, & gnasheth vpon me with his teeth: myne enemie loketh fiercely vpon me with his eyes.
- 10
- They haue opened their mouthes wide vpon me, and smitten me vpon the cheeke dispitefully, they gather the selues together against me.
- 11
- God hath shut me vp with the vngodly, and deliuered me into the handes of the wicked.
- 12
- I was in wealth, but he hath brought me to nought: he hath taken me by the necke, he hath all to shaken me, and set me as a marke for him selfe.
- 13
- His archers compasse me rounde about, he woundeth my raines, and doth not spare, my bowels hath he powred vpon the grounde.
- 14
- He hath geuen me one wounde vpon an other, and is fallen vpon me lyke a giaunt.
- 15
- I haue sowed a sackecloth vpon my skinne, and wallowed my head in the dust.
- 16
- My face is withered with weeping, & in mine eyes is the shadowe of death.
- 17
- Howbeit there is no wickednesse in my handes, but my prayer is cleane.
- 18
- O earth couer not thou my blood, and let my crying finde no roome.
- 19
- For lo, my witnesse is in heauen, and he that knoweth me, is in the height.
- 20
- My friendes geue me many wordes to scorne, and myne eye powreth out teares vnto God.
- 21
- O that a body might pleate with God, as one man doth with an other:
- 22
- Yet the number of my yeres is come, and the way that I must go is at hand, from whence I shall not turne againe.
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