Job 10 Cross References - BBE

¹ My soul is tired of life; I will let my sad thoughts go free in words; my soul will make a bitter outcry. ² I will say to God, Do not put me down as a sinner; make clear to me what you have against me. ³ What profit is it to you to be cruel, to give up the work of your hands, looking kindly on the design of evil-doers? ⁴ Have you eyes of flesh, or do you see as man sees? ⁵ Are your days as the days of man, or your years like his, ⁶ That you take note of my sin, searching after my wrongdoing, ⁷ Though you see that I am not an evil-doer; and there is no one who is able to take a man out of your hands? ⁸ Your hands made me, and I was formed by you, but then, changing your purpose, you gave me up to destruction. ⁹ O keep in mind that you made me out of earth; and will you send me back again to dust? ¹⁰ Was I not drained out like milk, becoming hard like cheese? ¹¹ By you I was clothed with skin and flesh, and joined together with bones and muscles. ¹² You have been kind to me, and your grace has been with me, and your care has kept my spirit safe. ¹³ But you kept these things in the secret of your heart; I am certain this was in your thoughts: ¹⁴ That, if I did wrong, you would take note of it, and would not make me clear from sin: ¹⁵ That, if I was an evil-doer, the curse would come on me; and if I was upright, my head would not be lifted up, being full of shame and overcome with trouble. ¹⁶ And that if there was cause for pride, you would go after me like a lion; and again put out your wonders against me: ¹⁷ That you would send new witnesses against me, increasing your wrath against me, and letting loose new armies on me. ¹⁸ Why then did you make me come out of my mother's body? It would have been better for me to have taken my last breath, and for no eye to have seen me, ¹⁹ And for me to have been as if I had not been; to have been taken from my mother's body straight to my last resting-place. ²⁰ Are not the days of my life small in number? Let your eyes be turned away from me, so that I may have a little pleasure, ²¹ Before I go to the place from which I will not come back, to the land where all is dark and black, ²² A land of thick dark, without order, where the very light is dark.

¹⁵ If this is to be my fate, put me to death now in answer to my prayer, if I have grace in your eyes; and let me not see my shame.

⁴ While he himself went a day's journey into the waste land, and took a seat under a broom-plant, desiring for himself only death; for he said, It is enough: now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.

²⁰ Why does he give light to him who is in trouble, and life to the bitter in soul; ²¹ To those whose desire is for death, but it comes not; who are searching for it more than for secret wealth; ²² Who are glad with great joy, and full of delight when they come to their last resting-place; ²³ To a man whose way is veiled, and who is shut in by God?

¹⁵ But he keeps safe from their sword those who have no father, and the poor from the power of the strong. ¹⁶ So the poor man has hope, and the mouth of the evil-doer is stopped.

²⁰ When there is need of food he will keep you from death, and in war from the power of the sword.

² If only my passion might be measured, and put into the scales against my trouble! ³ For then its weight would be more than the sand of the seas: because of this my words have been uncontrolled. ⁴ For the arrows of the Ruler of all are present with me, and their poison goes deep into my spirit: his army of fears is put in order against me.

⁸ If only I might have an answer to my prayer, and God would give me my desire! ⁹ If only he would be pleased to put an end to me; and would let loose his hand, so that I might be cut off!

²⁶ My words may seem wrong to you, but the words of him who has no hope are for the wind.

¹¹ So I will not keep my mouth shut; I will let the words come from it in the pain of my spirit, my soul will make a bitter outcry.

¹⁶ I have no desire for life, I would not be living for ever! Keep away from me, for my days are as a breath.

²¹ I have done no wrong; I give no thought to what becomes of me; I have no desire for life.

¹⁵ That, if I was an evil-doer, the curse would come on me; and if I was upright, my head would not be lifted up, being full of shame and overcome with trouble. ¹⁶ And that if there was cause for pride, you would go after me like a lion; and again put out your wonders against me:

¹³ If only you would keep me safe in the underworld, putting me in a secret place till your wrath is past, giving me a fixed time when I might come to your memory again!

⁶ If I say what is in my mind, my pain becomes no less: and if I keep quiet, how much of it goes from me? ⁷ But now he has overcome me with weariness and fear, and I am in the grip of all my trouble. ⁸ It has come up as a witness against me, and the wasting of my flesh makes answer to my face. ⁹ I am broken by his wrath, and his hate has gone after me; he has made his teeth sharp against me: my haters are looking on me with cruel eyes; ¹⁰ Their mouths are open wide against me; the blows of his bitter words are falling on my face; all of them come together in a mass against me. ¹¹ God gives me over to the power of sinners, sending me violently into the hands of evil-doers. ¹² I was in comfort, but I have been broken up by his hands; he has taken me by the neck, shaking me to bits; he has put me up as a mark for his arrows. ¹³ His bowmen come round about me; their arrows go through my body without mercy; my life is drained out on the earth. ¹⁴ I am broken with wound after wound; he comes rushing on me like a man of war. ¹⁵ I have made haircloth the clothing of my skin, and my horn is rolled in the dust. ¹⁶ My face is red with weeping, and my eyes are becoming dark;

⁴ And, truly, if I have been in error, the effect of my error is only on myself.

² Give attention with care to my words; and let this be your comfort. ³ Let me say what is in my mind, and after that, go on making sport of me. ⁴ As for me, is my outcry against man? is it then to be wondered at if my spirit is troubled?

³ When I kept my mouth shut, my bones were wasted, because of my crying all through the day. ⁴ For the weight of your hand was on me day and night; my body became dry like the earth in summer. Selah. ⁵ I made my wrongdoing clear to you, and did not keep back my sin. I said, I will put it all before the Lord; and you took away my wrongdoing and my sin. Selah.

¹⁵ What am I to say? seeing that it is he who has done it: all my time of sleeping I am turning from side to side without rest.

¹⁷ See, in place of peace my soul had bitter sorrow. but you have kept back my soul from the underworld; for you have put all my sins out of your memory.

³ So now, O Lord, give ear to my prayer and take my life from me; for death is better for me than life.

⁸ Then when the sun came up, God sent a burning east wind: and so great was the heat of the sun on his head that Jonah was overcome, and, requesting death for himself, said, Death is better for me than life.

⁵ If you will make search for God with care, and put your request before the Ruler of all; ⁶ If you are clean and upright; then he will certainly be moved to take up your cause, and will make clear your righteousness by building up your house again.

²⁹ You will not let me be clear of sin! why then do I take trouble for nothing?

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¹ To the chief music-maker on corded instruments, on the Sheminith. A Psalm. Of David. O Lord, do not be bitter with me in your wrath; do not send punishment on me in the heat of your passion. ² Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am wasted away: make me well, for even my bones are troubled. ³ My soul is in bitter trouble; and you, O Lord, how long? ⁴ Come back, O Lord, make my soul free; O give me salvation because of your mercy.

⁷ Do not keep in mind my sins when I was young, or my wrongdoing: let your memory of me be full of mercy, O Lord, because of your righteousness.

¹ A Psalm. Of David. To keep in memory. O Lord, be not bitter with me in your wrath; let not your hand be on me in the heat of your passion. ² For your arrows have gone into my flesh, and I am crushed under the weight of your hand. ³ My flesh is wasted because of your wrath; and there is no peace in my bones because of my sin. ⁴ For my crimes have gone over my head; they are like a great weight which is more than my strength. ⁵ My wounds are poisoned and evil-smelling, because of my foolish behaviour. ⁶ I am troubled, I am made low; I go weeping all the day. ⁷ For my body is full of burning; all my flesh is unhealthy. ⁸ I am feeble and crushed down; I gave a cry like a lion because of the grief in my heart.

²¹ But, O Lord God, give me your help, because of your name; take me out of danger, because your mercy is good.

²³ O God, let the secrets of my heart be uncovered, and let my wandering thoughts be tested: ²⁴ See if there is any way of sorrow in me, and be my guide in the eternal way.

² Let not your servant come before you to be judged; for no man living is upright in your eyes.

⁴⁰ Let us make search and put our ways to the test, turning again to the Lord; ⁴¹ Lifting up our hearts with our hands to God in the heavens. ⁴² We have done wrong and gone against your law; we have not had your forgiveness.

¹⁶ The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours, for we are sinners. ¹⁷ Because of this our hearts are feeble; for these things our eyes are dark;

¹ For this cause those who are in Christ Jesus will not be judged as sinners.

³¹ But if we were true judges of ourselves, punishment would not come on us. ³² But if punishment does come, it is sent by the Lord, so that we may be safe when the world is judged.

²⁰ Truly, God will not give up him who is without sin, and will not take evil-doers by the hand.

²² It is all the same to me; so I say, He puts an end to the sinner and to him who has done no wrong together.

²⁴ The land is given into the power of the evil-doer; the faces of its judges are covered; if not by him, then who has done it?

¹⁵ At the sound of your voice I would give an answer, and you would have a desire for the work of your hands.

¹⁶ Truly, is not their well-being in their power? The purpose of the evil-doers is far from me.

¹⁸ Though he made their houses full of good things: but the purpose of the evil-doers is far from me!

⁵ For Job has said, I am upright, and it is God who has taken away my right; ⁶ Though I am right, still I am in pain; my wound may not be made well, though I have done no wrong. ⁷ What man is like Job, a man who freely makes sport of God,

¹⁸ He who says to a king, You are an evil-doer; and to rulers, You are sinners; ¹⁹ Who has no respect for rulers, and who gives no more attention to those who have wealth than to the poor, for they are all the work of his hands.

⁷ Lifting them up to the seat of kings, and making them safe for ever. ⁸ And if they have been prisoned in chains, and taken in cords of trouble, ⁹ Then he makes clear to them what they have done, even their evil works in which they have taken pride.

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² Will he who is protesting give teaching to the Ruler of all? Let him who has arguments to put forward against God give an answer.

⁸ Will you even make my right of no value? will you say that I am wrong in order to make clear that you are right?

³³ For the ears of the Lord are open to the poor, and he takes thought for his prisoners.

⁸ The Lord will make all things complete for me: O Lord, your mercy is eternal; do not give up the works of your hands.

⁸ But now, O Lord, you are our father; we are the earth, and you are our maker; and we are all the work of your hand.

¹ You are in the right, O Lord, when I put my cause before you: still let me take up with you the question of your decisions: why does the evil-doer do well? why are the workers of deceit living in comfort? ² They have been planted by you, they have taken root; they go on and give fruit: you are near in their mouths but far from their thoughts. ³ But you, O Lord, have knowledge of me; you see me, searching and testing how my heart is with you: let them be pulled out like sheep to be put to death, make them ready for the day of death.

² By him I have been made to go in the dark where there is no light. ³ Truly against me his hand has been turned again and again all the day. ⁴ My flesh and my skin have been used up by him and my bones broken. ⁵ He has put up a wall against me, shutting me in with bitter sorrow. ⁶ He has kept me in dark places, like those who have been long dead. ⁷ He has put a wall round me, so that I am not able to go out; he has made great the weight of my chain. ⁸ Even when I send up a cry for help, he keeps my prayer shut out. ⁹ He has put up a wall of cut stones about my ways, he has made my roads twisted. ¹⁰ He is like a bear waiting for me, like a lion in secret places. ¹¹ By him my ways have been turned on one side and I have been pulled in bits; he has made me waste. ¹² With his bow bent, he has made me the mark for his arrows. ¹³ He has let loose his arrows into the inmost parts of my body. ¹⁴ I have become the sport of all the peoples; I am their song all the day. ¹⁵ He has made my life nothing but pain, he has given me the bitter root in full measure. ¹⁶ By him my teeth have been broken with crushed stones, and I am bent low in the dust. ¹⁷ My soul is sent far away from peace, I have no more memory of good. ¹⁸ And I said, My strength is cut off, and my hope from the Lord.

¹⁹ For this reason let those who by the purpose of God undergo punishment, keep on in well-doing and put their souls into the safe hands of their Maker.

⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not take note of his face or how tall he is, because I will not have him: for the Lord's view is not man's; man takes note of the outer form, but the Lord sees the heart.

³² For he is not a man as I am, that I might give him an answer, that we might come together before a judge.

¹⁵ And he said, You take care to seem right in the eyes of men, but God sees your hearts: and those things which are important in the opinion of men, are evil in the eyes of God.

¹⁴ And his head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

²⁶ Truly, God is great, greater than all our knowledge; the number of his years may not be searched out.

² Before the mountains were made, before you had given birth to the earth and the world, before time was, and for ever, you are God. ³ You send man back to his dust; and say, Go back, you children of men. ⁴ For to you a thousand years are no more than yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night.

¹² But you, O Lord, are eternal; and your name will never come to an end.

²⁴ I will say, O my God, take me not away before my time; your years go on through all generations: ²⁵ In the past you put the earth on its base, and the heavens are the work of your hands. ²⁶ They will come to an end, but you will still go on; they all will become old like a coat, and like a robe they will be changed: ²⁷ But you are the unchanging One, and your years will have no end.

¹² They will be rolled up like a cloth, even like a robe, and they will be changed: but you are the same and your years will have no end.

⁸ But, my loved ones, keep in mind this one thing, that with the Lord one day is the same as a thousand years, and a thousand years are no more than one day.

¹⁴ That, if I did wrong, you would take note of it, and would not make me clear from sin: ¹⁵ That, if I was an evil-doer, the curse would come on me; and if I was upright, my head would not be lifted up, being full of shame and overcome with trouble. ¹⁶ And that if there was cause for pride, you would go after me like a lion; and again put out your wonders against me: ¹⁷ That you would send new witnesses against me, increasing your wrath against me, and letting loose new armies on me.

¹⁶ For now my steps are numbered by you, and my sin is not overlooked.

¹⁵ Let the arm of the sinner and the evil-doer be broken; go on searching for his sin till there is no more.

²¹ Will not God make search for it? for he sees the secrets of the heart.

³⁴ And in the skirts of your robe may be seen the life-blood of those who have done no wrong: (UNTRANSLATED TEXT)

¹² And it will come about at that time, that I will go searching through Jerusalem with lights; and I will send punishment on the men who have become like wine stored over-long, who say to themselves, The Lord will not do good and will not do evil.

²⁴ But Jesus did not have faith in them, because he had knowledge of them all. ²⁵ He had no need for any witness about man; for he himself had knowledge of what was in man.

⁵ For this reason let there be no judging before the time, till the Lord comes, who will make clear the secret things of the dark, and the designs of the heart; and then will every man have his praise from God.

³⁹ See now, I myself am he; there is no other god but me: giver of death and life, wounding and making well: and no one has power to make you free from my hand.

¹⁰ For he has knowledge of the way I take; after I have been tested I will come out like gold.

¹³ But his purpose is fixed and there is no changing it; and he gives effect to the desire of his soul. ¹⁴ For what has been ordered for me by him will be gone through to the end: and his mind is full of such designs.

⁶ Let me be measured in upright scales, and let God see my righteousness:

¹⁴ What then will I do when God comes as my judge? and what answer may I give to his questions?

³⁵ If only God would give ear to me, and the Ruler of all would give me an answer! or if what he has against me had been put in writing!

⁷ And it came about, after he had said these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, I am very angry with you and your two friends, because you have not said what is right about me, as my servant Job has.

⁶ Because the Lord sees the way of the upright, but the end of the sinner is destruction.

³ O Lord my God, if I have done this; if my hands have done any wrong;

⁸ The Lord will be judge of the peoples; give a decision for me, O Lord, because of my righteousness, and let my virtue have its reward. ⁹ O let the evil of the evil-doer come to an end, but give strength to the upright: for men's minds and hearts are tested by the God of righteousness.

³ You have put my heart to the test, searching me in the night; you have put me to the test and seen no evil purpose in me; I will keep my mouth from sin.

¹ Of David. O Lord, be my judge, for my behaviour has been upright: I have put my faith in the Lord, I am not in danger of slipping. ² Put me in the scales, O Lord, so that I may be tested; let the fire make clean my thoughts and my heart. ³ For your mercy is before my eyes; and I have gone in the way of your good faith. ⁴ I have not taken my seat with foolish persons, and I do not go with false men. ⁵ I have been a hater of the band of wrongdoers, and I will not be seated among sinners.

²² Now keep this in mind, you who have no memory of God, for fear that you may be crushed under my hand, with no one to give you help:

¹ To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David. O Lord, you have knowledge of me, searching out all my secrets. ² You have knowledge when I am seated and when I get up, you see my thoughts from far away.

²¹ Are not your haters hated by me, O Lord? are not those who are lifted up against you a cause of grief to me? ²² My hate for them is complete; my thoughts of them are as if they were making war on me.

¹⁵ Now if you are ready, on hearing the sound of the horn, pipe, harp, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe, and all sorts of instruments, to go down on your faces in worship before the image which I have made, it is well: but if you will not give worship, that same hour you will be put into a burning and flaming fire; and what god is there who will be able to take you out of my hands?

¹⁰ And now I will make her shame clear before the eyes of her lovers, and no one will take her out of my hand.

²⁸ And I give them eternal life; they will never come to destruction, and no one will ever take them out of my hand. ²⁹ That which my Father has given to me has more value than all; and no one is able to take anything out of the Father's hand. ³⁰ I and my Father are one.

¹⁷ He said to him a third time, Simon, son of John, am I dear to you? Now Peter was troubled in his heart because he put the question a third time, Am I dear to you? And he said to him, Lord, you have knowledge of all things; you see that you are dear to me. Jesus said to him, Then give my sheep food.

¹² For our glory is in this, in the knowledge which we have that our way of life in the world, and most of all in relation to you, has been holy and true in the eyes of God; not in the wisdom of the flesh, but in the grace of God.

¹⁰ You are witnesses, with God, how holy and upright and free from all evil was our way of life among you who have faith;

⁶ And the Lord had sorrow because he had made man on the earth, and grief was in his heart. ⁷ And the Lord said, I will take away man, whom I have made, from the face of the earth, even man and beast and that which goes on the earth and every bird of the air; for I have sorrow for having made them.

³ What profit is it to you to be cruel, to give up the work of your hands, looking kindly on the design of evil-doers?

⁷³ JOD Your hands have made me, and given me form: give me wisdom, so that I may have knowledge of your teaching.

⁷ Every one who is named by my name, and whom I have made for my glory, who has been formed and designed by me.

³ Then I went down to the potter's house, and he was doing his work on the stones. ⁴ And when the vessel, which he was forming out of earth, got damaged in the hand of the potter, he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it. ⁵ Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ⁶ O Israel, am I not able to do with you as this potter does? says the Lord. See, like earth in the potter's hand are you in my hands, O Israel. ⁷ Whenever I say anything about uprooting a nation or a kingdom, and smashing it and sending destruction on it; ⁸ If, in that very minute, that nation of which I was talking is turned away from its evil, my purpose of doing evil to them will be changed. ⁹ And whenever I say anything about building up a nation or a kingdom, and planting it; ¹⁰ If, in that very minute, it does evil in my eyes, going against my orders, then my good purpose, which I said I would do for them, will be changed.

⁷ And the Lord God made man from the dust of the earth, breathing into him the breath of life: and man became a living soul.

¹⁹ With the hard work of your hands you will get your bread till you go back to the earth from which you were taken: for dust you are and to the dust you will go back.

⁷ O, keep in mind that my life is wind: my eye will never again see good.

¹⁴ If I say to the earth, You are my father; and to the worm, My mother and my sister;

¹⁵ My throat is dry like a broken vessel; my tongue is fixed to the roof of my mouth, and the dust of death is on my lips.

⁶ O Lord, keep in mind your pity and your mercies; for they have been from the earliest times. ⁷ Do not keep in mind my sins when I was young, or my wrongdoing: let your memory of me be full of mercy, O Lord, because of your righteousness.

¹⁸ Give thought to my grief and my pain; and take away all my sins.

⁴⁷ See how short my time is; why have you made all men for no purpose?

³ You send man back to his dust; and say, Go back, you children of men.

⁴ Keep me in mind, O Lord, when you are good to your people; O let your salvation come to me;

⁷ And the dust goes back to the earth as it was, and the spirit goes back to God who gave it.

⁹ Cursed is he who has an argument with his Maker, the pot which has an argument with the Potter! Will the wet earth say to him who is working with it, What are you doing, that your work has nothing by which it may be gripped?

⁶ O Israel, am I not able to do with you as this potter does? says the Lord. See, like earth in the potter's hand are you in my hands, O Israel.

²¹ Or has not the potter the right to make out of one part of his earth a vessel for honour, and out of another a vessel for shame?

¹⁴ I will give you praise, for I am strangely and delicately formed; your works are great wonders, and of this my soul is fully conscious. ¹⁵ My frame was not unseen by you when I was made secretly, and strangely formed in the lowest parts of the earth. ¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book all my days were recorded, even those which were purposed before they had come into being.

¹⁷ His tail is curving like a cedar; the muscles of his legs are joined together. ¹⁸ His bones are pipes of brass, his legs are like rods of iron.

⁴ And again he said to me, Be a prophet to these bones, and say to them, O you dry bones, give ear to the word of the Lord. ⁵ This is what the Lord has said to these bones: See, I will make breath come into you so that you may come to life; ⁶ And I will put muscles on you and make flesh come on you, and put skin over you, and breath into you, so that you may have life; and you will be certain that I am the Lord. ⁷ So I gave the word as I was ordered: and at my words there was a shaking of the earth, and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸ And looking I saw that there were muscles on them and flesh came up, and they were covered with skin: but there was no breath in them.

² For in this we are crying in weariness, greatly desiring to be clothed with our house from heaven: ³ So that our spirits may not be unclothed.

¹⁶ Through whom all the body, being rightly formed and united together, by the full working of every part, is increased to the building up of itself in love.

¹⁹ See now, your servant has had grace in your eyes and great is your mercy in keeping my life from destruction, but I am not able to get as far as the mountain before evil overtakes me and death;

⁴ The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Ruler of all gives me life.

²⁵ So I say to you, Take no thought for your life, about food or drink, or about clothing for your body. Is not life more than food, and the body more than its clothing?

²⁵ And he is not dependent on the work of men's hands, as if he had need of anything, for he himself gives to all life and breath and all things;

²⁸ For in him we have life and motion and existence; as certain of your verse writers have said, For we are his offspring.

⁹ I am looking for him on the left hand, but there is no sign of him; and turning to the right, I am not able to see him.

¹³ But his purpose is fixed and there is no changing it; and he gives effect to the desire of his soul.

⁶ For every purpose there is a time and a decision, because the sorrow of man is great in him. ⁷ No one is certain what is to be, and who is able to say to him when it will be?

⁷ I am the giver of light and the maker of the dark; causing blessing, and sending troubles; I am the Lord, who does all these things.

¹⁵ Truly, you have a secret God, the God of Israel is a Saviour!

⁹ Let the things which are past come to your memory: for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like me; ¹⁰ Making clear from the first what is to come, and from past times the things which have not so far come about; saying, My purpose is fixed, and I will do all my pleasure; ¹¹ Sending for a bird of strong flight from the east, the man of my purpose from a far country; I have said it, and I will give effect to it; the thing designed by me will certainly be done.

³⁷ Who is able to say a thing, and give effect to it, if it has not been ordered by the Lord?

³³ O how deep is the wealth of the wisdom and knowledge of God! no one is able to make discovery of his decisions, and his ways may not be searched out.

¹¹ Which is seen in his eternal purpose in Christ Jesus our Lord:

⁷ Having mercy on thousands, overlooking evil and wrongdoing and sin; he will not let wrongdoers go free, but will send punishment on children for the sins of their fathers, and on their children's children to the third and fourth generation.

¹⁸ The Lord is slow to wrath and great in mercy, overlooking wrongdoing and evil, and will not let wrongdoers go free; sending punishment on children for the sins of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation.

²¹ And why do you not take away my sin, and let my wrongdoing be ended? for now I go down to the dust, and you will be searching for me with care, but I will be gone.

²⁸ I go in fear of all my pains; I am certain that I will not be free from sin in your eyes.

²⁶ For you put bitter things on record against me, and send punishment on me for the sins of my early years; ²⁷ And you put chains on my feet, watching all my ways, and making a limit for my steps;

³ O Jah, if you took note of every sin, who would go free?

¹ To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David. O Lord, you have knowledge of me, searching out all my secrets.

⁷ And God said, Truly, I have seen the grief of my people in Egypt, and their cry because of their cruel masters has come to my ears; for I have knowledge of their sorrows;

¹² If he puts out his hand to take, by whom may it be turned back? who may say to him, What are you doing?

¹⁵ Even if my cause was good, I would not be able to give an answer; I would make request for grace from him who was against me.

²⁰ Though I was in the right, he would say that I was in the wrong; I have done no evil; but he says that I am a sinner. ²¹ I have done no wrong; I give no thought to what becomes of me; I have no desire for life.

⁷ Though you see that I am not an evil-doer; and there is no one who is able to take a man out of your hands?

⁶ At the very thought of it my flesh is shaking with fear.

¹⁵ For this cause I am in fear before him, my thoughts of him overcome me.

⁷ Let my hater be like the evil man, and let him who comes against me be as the sinner.

¹⁷ The sinners and all the nations who have no memory of God will be turned into the underworld.

¹⁵³ RESH O see my trouble, and be my saviour; for I keep your law in my mind,

¹¹ Unhappy is the sinner! for the reward of his evil doings will come on him.

⁵ Then I said, The curse is on me, and my fate is destruction; for I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of armies.

⁵ Will you not have mercy on him who takes pleasure in doing righteousness, even on those who keep in mind your ways? Truly you were angry, and we went on doing evil, and sinning against you in the past. ⁶ For we have all become like an unclean person, and all our good acts are like a dirty robe: and we have all become old like a dead leaf, and our sins, like the wind, take us away.

²⁰ See, O Lord, for I am in trouble; the inmost parts of my body are deeply moved; my heart is turned in me; for I have been uncontrolled: outside the children are put to the sword, and in the house there is death.

¹ Keep in mind, O Lord, what has come to us: take note and see our shame. ² Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen. ³ We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows. ⁴ We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price. ⁵ Our attackers are on our necks: overcome with weariness, we have no rest. ⁶ We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians so that we might have enough bread. ⁷ Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us. ⁸ Servants are ruling over us, and there is no one to make us free from their hands. ⁹ We put our lives in danger to get our bread, because of the sword of the waste land. ¹⁰ Our skin is heated like an oven because of our burning heat from need of food. ¹¹ They took by force the women in Zion, the virgins in the towns of Judah. ¹² Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured. ¹³ The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood. ¹⁴ The old men are no longer seated in the doorway, and the music of the young men has come to an end. ¹⁵ The joy of our hearts is ended; our dancing is changed into sorrow. ¹⁶ The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours, for we are sinners. ¹⁷ Because of this our hearts are feeble; for these things our eyes are dark; ¹⁸ Because of the mountain of Zion which is a waste; jackals go over it. ¹⁹ You, O Lord, are seated as King for ever; the seat of your power is eternal. ²⁰ Why have we gone from your memory for ever? why have you been turned away from us for so long? ²¹ Make us come back to you, O Lord, and let us be turned; make our days new again as in the past. ²² But you have quite given us up; you are full of wrath against us.

¹⁸ Then you will again see how the upright man is different from the sinner, and the servant of God from him who is not.

¹⁰ In the same way, when you have done all the things which are given you to do, say, There is no profit in us, for we have only done what we were ordered to do.

⁸ But to those who, from a love of competition, are not guided by what is true, will come the heat of his wrath, ⁹ Trouble and sorrow on all whose works are evil, to the Jew first and then to the Greek;

²⁹ If these men have the common death of men, or if the natural fate of all men overtakes them, then the Lord has not sent me. ³⁰ But if the Lord does something new, opening the earth to take them in, with everything which is theirs, and they go down living into the underworld, then it will be clear to you that the Lord has not been honoured by these men.

⁵⁹ Then the Lord your God will make your punishment, and the punishment of your seed, a thing to be wondered at; great punishments and cruel diseases stretching on through long years.

⁹ Who does great things outside our knowledge, wonders without number:

¹³ I am crying out with pain till the morning; it is as if a lion was crushing all my bones.

¹⁰ He is like a bear waiting for me, like a lion in secret places.

⁷ So I will be like a lion to them; as a cruel beast I will keep watch by the road; ⁸ I will come face to face with them like a bear whose young ones have been taken from her, and their inmost hearts will be broken; there the dogs will make a meal of them; they will be wounded by the beasts of the field.

⁸ The cry of the lion is sounding; who will not have fear? The Lord God has said the word; is it possible for the prophet to keep quiet?

²¹ I went out full, and the Lord has sent me back again with nothing; why do you give me the name Naomi, seeing that the Lord has given witness against me, and the Ruler of all has sent sorrow on me?

⁸ It has come up as a witness against me, and the wasting of my flesh makes answer to my face.

⁶ Be certain that it is God who has done me wrong, and has taken me in his net. ⁷ Truly, I make an outcry against the violent man, but there is no answer: I give a cry for help, but no one takes up my cause. ⁸ My way is walled up by him so that I may not go by: he has made my roads dark. ⁹ He has put off my glory from me, and taken the crown from my head. ¹⁰ I am broken down by him on every side, and I am gone; my hope is uprooted like a tree. ¹¹ His wrath is burning against me, and I am to him as one of his haters.

¹⁹ God will give thought to me; he who from early times is strong will send pain and trouble on them. Selah. Because they are unchanged, they have no fear of God.

¹¹ From his earliest days, Moab has been living in comfort; like wine long stored he has not been drained from vessel to vessel, he has never gone away as a prisoner: so his taste is still in him, his smell is unchanged.

¹⁰ Because it did not keep the doors of my mother's body shut, so that trouble might be veiled from my eyes. ¹¹ Why did death not take me when I came out of my mother's body, why did I not, when I came out, give up my last breath?

²⁰ But the eyes of the evil-doers will be wasting away; their way of flight is gone, and their only hope is the taking of their last breath.

¹⁰ But man comes to his death and is gone: he gives up his spirit, and where is he?

¹⁰ Sorrow is mine, my mother, because you have given birth to me, a cause of fighting and argument in all the earth! I have not made men my creditors and I am not in debt to any, but every one of them is cursing me.

¹⁴ A curse on the day of my birth: let there be no blessing on the day when my mother had me. ¹⁵ A curse on the man who gave the news to my father, saying, You have a male child; making him very glad. ¹⁶ May that man be like the towns overturned by the Lord without mercy: let a cry for help come to his ears in the morning, and the sound of war in the middle of the day; ¹⁷ Because he did not put me to death before my birth took place: so my mother's body would have been my last resting-place, and she would have been with child for ever. ¹⁸ Why did I come from my mother's body to see pain and sorrow, so that my days might be wasted with shame?

²⁴ The Son of man goes, even as the Writings say of him: but a curse is on that man through whom the Son of man is given up; it would have been well for that man if he had never come into the world.

⁸ Let them be like an after-birth which is turned to water and comes to an end; like the fruit of a woman who gives birth before her time, let them not see the sun.

⁶ My days go quicker than the cloth-worker's thread, and come to an end without hope. ⁷ O, keep in mind that my life is wind: my eye will never again see good.

¹⁶ I have no desire for life, I would not be living for ever! Keep away from me, for my days are as a breath. ¹⁷ What is man, that you have made him great, and that your attention is fixed on him, ¹⁸ And that your hand is on him every morning, and that you are testing him every minute? ¹⁹ How long will it be before your eyes are turned away from me, so that I may have a minute's breathing-space? ²⁰ If I have done wrong, what have I done to you, O keeper of men? why have you made me a mark for your blows, so that I am a weariness to myself? ²¹ And why do you not take away my sin, and let my wrongdoing be ended? for now I go down to the dust, and you will be searching for me with care, but I will be gone.

⁹ For we are but of yesterday, and have no knowledge, because our days on earth are gone like a shade:

²⁵ My days go quicker than a post-runner: they go in flight, they see no good. ²⁶ They go rushing on like reed-boats, like an eagle dropping suddenly on its food.

²¹ Take your hand far away from me; and let me not be overcome by fear of you.

¹ As for man, the son of woman, his days are short and full of trouble.

⁵ You have made my days no longer than a hand's measure; and my years are nothing in your eyes; truly, every man is but a breath. Selah.

¹³ Let your wrath be turned away from me, so that I may be comforted, before I go away from here, and become nothing.

¹⁵ As for man, his days are as grass: his beautiful growth is like the flower of the field. ¹⁶ The wind goes over it and it is gone; and its place sees it no longer.

²³ But now that the child is dead there is no reason for me to go without food; am I able to make him come back to life? I will go to him, but he will never come back to me.

¹⁴ For death comes to us all, and we are like water drained out on the earth, which it is not possible to take up again; and God will not take away the life of the man whose purpose is that he who has been sent away may not be completely cut off from him.

⁵ Let the dark and the black night take it for themselves; let it be covered with a cloud; let the dark shades of day send fear on it.

¹³ For then I might have gone to my rest in quiet, and in sleep have been in peace,

⁸ The eye of him who sees me will see me no longer: your eyes will be looking for me, but I will be gone. ⁹ A cloud comes to an end and is gone; so he who goes down into the underworld comes not up again. ¹⁰ He will not come back to his house, and his place will have no more knowledge of him.

¹⁰ But man comes to his death and is gone: he gives up his spirit, and where is he? ¹¹ The waters go from a pool, and a river becomes waste and dry; ¹² So man goes down to his last resting-place and comes not again: till the heavens come to an end, they will not be awake or come out of their sleep. ¹³ If only you would keep me safe in the underworld, putting me in a secret place till your wrath is past, giving me a fixed time when I might come to your memory again! ¹⁴ If death takes a man, will he come to life again? All the days of my trouble I would be waiting, till the time came for me to be free.

²² For in a short time I will take the journey from which I will not come back.

⁴ Yes, though I go through the valley of deep shade, I will have no fear of evil; for you are with me, your rod and your support are my comfort.

⁶ You have put me in the lowest deep, even in dark places.

¹¹ Will the story of your mercy be given in the house of the dead? will news of your faith come to the place of destruction? ¹² May there be knowledge of your wonders in the dark? or of your righteousness where memory is dead?

¹¹ I said, I will not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living: I will not see man again or those living in the world.

⁶ And they never said, Where is the Lord, who took us up out of the land of Egypt; who was our guide through the waste of sand, through an unplanted land full of deep holes, through a dry land of deep shade, which no one went through and where no man was living?

²² There is no dark place, and no thick cloud, in which the workers of evil may take cover.

¹⁷ Have the doors of death been open to you, or have the door-keepers of the dark ever seen you?

¹⁹ Though you have let us be crushed in the place of jackals, though we are covered with darkest shade.

¹² May there be knowledge of your wonders in the dark? or of your righteousness where memory is dead?

¹⁶ Give glory to the Lord your God, before he makes it dark, and before your feet are slipping on the dark mountains, and, while you are looking for a light, he makes it into deep dark, into black night.

²⁶ And in addition, there is a deep division fixed between us and you, so that those who might go from here to you are not able to do so, and no one may come from you to us.