Study Desk

And when much time had passed, his wife said to him, How long wilt thou hold out, saying, Behold, I wait yet a little while, expecting the hope of my deliverance? for, behold, thy memorial is abolished from the earth, even thy sons and daughters, the pangs and pains of my womb which I bore in vain with sorrows; and thou thyself sittest down to spend the nights in the open air among the corruption of worms, and I am a wanderer and a servant from place to place and house to house, waiting for the setting of the sun, that I may rest from my labours and my pangs which now beset me: but say some word against the Lord, and die.

For the arrows of the Lord are in my body, whose violence drinks up my blood: whenever I am going to speak, they pierce me.

Thus I also have been deserted of all; and I am ruined, and become an outcast.

Whenever I lie down, I say, When will it be day? and whenever I rise up, again I say when will it be evening? and I am full of pains from evening to morning.

The eye of him that sees me shall not see me again: thine eyes are upon me, and I am no more.

I am as a cloud that is cleared away from the sky: for if a man go down to the grave, he shall not come up again:

Am I a sea, or a serpent, that thou hast set a watch over me?

If I have sinned, what shall I be able to do, O thou that understandest the mind of men? why hast thou made me as thine accuser, and why am I a burden to thee?

Why hast thou not forgotten my iniquity, and purged my sin? but now I shall depart to the earth; and in the morning I am no more.

But since I am ungodly, why have I not died?

so shall I not be afraid, but I will speak: for I am not thus conscious of guilt.

Or if I should be ungodly, woe is me: and if I should be righteous, I cannot lift myself up, for I am full of dishonour.

For I am hunted like a lion for slaughter; for again thou hast changed and art terribly destroying me;

For say not, I am pure in my works, and blameless before him.

Behold, I am near my judgment: I know that I shall appear evidently just.

I am as that which waxes old like a bottle, or like a moth-eaten garment.

But thou has made me a byword amount the nations, and I am become a scorn to them.

I am fenced round about, and can by no means escape: he has set darkness before my face.

He has torn me around about, and I am gone: and he has cut off my hope like a tree.

which I am conscious of in myself, which mine eye has seen, and not another, but all have been fulfilled to me in my bosom.