Study Desk

Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.

And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master.

By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they are consumed.

‘Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?

Even in his servants he puts no trust, and his angels he charges with error;

I have seen the fool taking root, but suddenly I cursed his dwelling.

His children are far from safety; they are crushed in the gate, and there is no one to deliver them.

The hungry eat his harvest, and he takes it even out of thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.

For he wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal.

Does the wild donkey bray when he has grass, or the ox low over his fodder?

that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!

"Has not man a hard service on earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired hand?

Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hired hand who looks for his wages,

he returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him anymore.

His confidence is severed, and his trust is a spider's web.

He leans against his house, but it does not stand; he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.

He is a lush plant before the sun, and his shoots spread over his garden.

His roots entwine the stone heap; he looks upon a house of stones.