Bishops(i)
1 Iob aunswered, and saide
2 O heare diligently my wordes, and that shalbe in steede of your consolations
3 Suffer me that I may speake, and when I haue spoken mocke on
4 Is it for mans sake that I make this disputation? Which if it were so, shoulde not my spirite then be in sore trouble
5 Marke me [well] and be abashed, and lay your hande vpon your mouth
6 For when I consider [my selfe] I am afrayde, and my fleshe is smitten with feare
7 Wherefore do wicked men liue, come to their olde age, and increase in richesse
8 Their children lyue in their sight, and their generation before their eyes
9 Their houses are safe from all feare, and the rod of God is not vpon them
10 Their bullocke gendreth and that not out of time, their cowe calueth and is not vnfruitfull
11 They sende foorth their children by flockes, & their sonnes [leade the] daunce
12 They beare with them tabrets and harpes, and reioyce in the sounde of the organs
13 They spend their dayes in wealthines, but sodainely they go downe to the graue
14 They say also vnto God: Go from vs, we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes
15 Who is the almightie that we should serue him? And what profite should we haue if we should pray vnto him
16 Lo, there is vtterly no goodnesse in their hande, therefore wyll I not haue to do with the counsaile of the vngodly
17 How oft shall the candell of the wicked be put out, and their destruction come vpon them? O what sorowe shall God geue them for their part in his wrath
18 Yea, they shalbe euen as hay before the winde, and as chaffe that the storme carieth away
19 God wyll lay vp the sorowe of the father for his children: & when he rewardeth him, he shall know it
20 Their owne miserie shal they see with their eyes, and drinke of the fearefull wrath of the almightie
21 For what careth he for his house after his death, when the number of his monethes is cut short
22 Seeing God hath the highest power of all, who can teache him any knowledge
23 One dyeth in his full strength, being in all ease and prosperitie
24 His breastes are full of milke, and his bones runne full of marowe
25 Another dyeth in the bitternes of his soule, and neuer eateth with pleasure
26 They shall sleepe both alyke in the earth, and the wormes shall couer them
27 Beholde, I know what ye thinke, yea and the subtiltie that ye imagine against me
28 For ye say where is the princes palace? and where is the dwelling of the vngodly
29 Haue ye not asked them that go by the way? Doubtlesse ye cannot denie their tokens
30 That the wicked is kept vnto the day of destruction, and the vngodly shalbe brought foorth to the day of wrath
31 Who dare declare his way to his face? who wil rewarde him for that he doth
32 Yet shall he be brought to his graue, and dwell among the heape [of the dead.
33 Then shal the slymie valley be sweet vnto him, all men also must folowe him, as there are innumerable gone before him
34 Howe vayne then is the comfort that ye geue me, seyng falshood remayneth in all your aunsweres