Job 23 Cross References - BBE

¹ And Job made answer and said, ² Even today my outcry is bitter; his hand is hard on my sorrow. ³ If only I had knowledge of where he might be seen, so that I might come even to his seat! ⁴ I would put my cause in order before him, and my mouth would be full of arguments. ⁵ I would see what his answers would be, and have knowledge of what he would say to me. ⁶ Would he make use of his great power to overcome me? No, but he would give attention to me. ⁷ There an upright man might put his cause before him; and I would be free for ever from my judge. ⁸ See, I go forward, but he is not there; and back, but I do not see him; 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. ¹⁰ For he has knowledge of the way I take; after I have been tested I will come out like gold. ¹¹ My feet have gone in his steps; I have kept in his way, without turning to one side or to the other. ¹² I have never gone against the orders of his lips; the words of his mouth have been stored up in my heart. 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. ¹⁵ For this cause I am in fear before him, my thoughts of him overcome me. ¹⁶ For God has made my heart feeble, and my mind is troubled before the Ruler of all. ¹⁷ For I am overcome by the dark, and by the black night which is covering my face.

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.

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.

¹ My soul is tired of life; I will let my sad thoughts go free in words; my soul will make a bitter outcry.

⁶ And would make clear to you the secrets of wisdom, and the wonders of his purpose!

⁴ For the weight of your hand was on me day and night; my body became dry like the earth in summer. Selah.

² In the day of my trouble, my heart was turned to the Lord: my hand was stretched out in the night without resting; my soul would not be comforted. ³ I will keep God in memory, with sounds of grief; my thoughts are troubled, and my spirit is overcome. Selah. ⁴ You keep my eyes from sleep; I am so troubled that no words come. ⁵ My thoughts go back to the days of the past, to the years which are gone. ⁶ The memory of my song comes back to me in the night; my thoughts are moving in my heart; my spirit is searching with care. ⁷ Will the Lord put me away for ever? will he be kind no longer? ⁸ Is his mercy quite gone for ever? has his word come to nothing? ⁹ Has God put away the memory of his pity? are his mercies shut up by his wrath? Selah.

¹⁹ Keep in mind my trouble and my wandering, the bitter root and the poison. ²⁰ My soul still keeps the memory of them; and is bent down in me.

³ But I would have talk with the Ruler of all, and my desire is to have an argument with God.

²¹ So that he may give decision for a man in his cause with God, and between a son of man and his neighbour.

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! ³⁶ Truly I would take up the book in my hands; it would be to me as a crown; ³⁷ I would make clear the number of my steps, I would put it before him like a prince! The words of Job are ended.

¹ (UNTRANSLATED TEXT) 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. ³ And Job said in answer to the Lord, ⁴ Truly, I am of no value; what answer may I give to you? I will put my hand on my mouth. ⁵ I have said once, and even twice, what was in my mind, but I will not do so again.

⁸ We have been waiting for you, O Lord; the desire of our soul is for the memory of your name.

⁶ Make search for the Lord while he is there, make prayer to him while he is near: ⁷ Let the sinner give up his way, and the evil-doer his purpose: and let him come back to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for there is full forgiveness with him.

⁷ Though our sins give witness against us, do something, O Lord, for the honour of your name: for again and again we have been turned away from you, we have done evil against you.

¹⁹ That is, that God was in Christ making peace between the world and himself, not putting their sins to their account, and having given to us the preaching of this news of peace. ²⁰ So we are the representatives of Christ, as if God was making a request to you through us: we make our request to you, in the name of Christ, be at peace with God.

⁶ So that as it is clear that some have to go in, and that the first hearers of the good news were not able to go in because they went against God's orders,

²⁵ Let such a thing be far from you, to put the upright to death with the sinner: will not the judge of all the earth do right? ²⁶ And the Lord said, If there are fifty upright men in the town, I will have mercy on it because of them. ²⁷ And Abraham answering said, Truly, I who am only dust, have undertaken to put my thoughts before the Lord: ²⁸ If by chance there are five less than fifty upright men, will you give up all the town to destruction because of these five? And he said, I will not give it to destruction if there are forty-five. ²⁹ And again he said to him, By chance there may be forty there. And he said, I will not do it if there are forty. ³⁰ And he said, Let not the Lord be angry with me if I say, What if there are thirty there? And he said, I will not do it if there are thirty. ³¹ And he said, See now, I have undertaken to put my thoughts before the Lord: what if there are twenty there? And he said, I will have mercy because of the twenty. ³² And he said, O let not the Lord be angry and I will say only one word more: by chance there may be ten there. And he said, I will have mercy because of the ten.

¹² And you said, Truly, I will be good to you, and make your seed like the sand of the sea which may not be numbered.

¹² Why let the Egyptians say, He took them out to an evil fate, to put them to death on the mountains, cutting them off from the earth? Let your wrath be turned away from them, and send not this evil on your people. ¹³ Have in mind Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you gave your oath, saying, I will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number, and all this land will I give to your seed, as I said, to be their heritage for ever.

¹³ And Moses said to the Lord, Then it will come to the ears of the Egyptians; for by your power you took this people out from among them; ¹⁴ And they will give the news to the people of this land: they have had word that you, Lord, are present with this people, letting yourself be seen face to face, and that your cloud is resting over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵ Now if you put to death all this people as one man, then the nations who have had word of your glory will say, ¹⁶ Because the Lord was not able to take this people into the land which he made an oath to give them, he sent destruction on them in the waste land. ¹⁷ So now, may my prayer come before you, and let the power of the Lord be great, as you said: 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. ¹⁹ May the sin of this people have forgiveness, in the measure of your great mercy, as you have had mercy on them from Egypt up till now.

⁸ O Lord, what am I to say now that Israel have given way before their attackers? ⁹ For when the news comes to the Canaanites and all the people of the land, they will come up, shutting us in and cutting off our name from the earth: and what will you do for the honour of your great name?

¹⁸ See now, I have put my cause in order, and I am certain that I will be seen to be right.

¹⁹ Make clear to me what we are to say to him; we are unable to put our cause before him, because of the dark.

¹¹ Because of your name, O Lord, let me have forgiveness for my sin, which is very great.

¹ Be my judge, O God, supporting my cause against a nation without religion; O keep me from the false and evil man.

²⁶ Put me in mind of this; let us take up the cause between us: put forward your cause, so that you may be seen to be in the right.

¹⁸ O my God, let your ear be turned and give hearing; let your eyes be open and see how we have been made waste and the town which is named by your name: for we are not offering our prayers before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great mercies. ¹⁹ O Lord, give ear; O Lord, have forgiveness; O Lord, take note and do; let there be no more waiting; for the honour of your name, O my God, because your town and your people are named by your name.

² I will say to God, Do not put me down as a sinner; make clear to me what you have against me.

²² Then at the sound of your voice I will give answer; or let me put forward my cause for you to give me an answer. ²³ What is the number of my evil-doings and my sins? give me knowledge of them.

² I see that you are able to do every thing, and to give effect to all your designs. ³ Who is this who makes dark the purpose of God by words without knowledge? For I have been talking without knowledge about wonders not to be searched out. ⁴ Give ear to me, and I will say what is in my mind; I will put questions to you, and you will give me the answers. ⁵ Word of you had come to my ears, but now my eye has seen you. ⁶ For this cause I give witness that what I said is false, and in sorrow I take my seat in the dust.

³ But it is a small thing to me that I am judged by you or by man's judging; I am not even a judge of myself. ⁴ For I am not conscious of any wrong in myself; but this does not make me clear, for it is the Lord who is my judge.

⁴ He is wise in heart and great in strength: who ever made his face hard against him, and any good came of it?

¹⁹ If it is a question of strength, he says, Here I am! and if it is a question of a cause at law, he says, Who will give me a fixed day?

³³ There is no one to give a decision between us, who might have control over us. ³⁴ Let him take away his rod from me and not send his fear on me:

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

³ When my cry came to your ears you gave me an answer, and made me great with strength in my soul.

⁴ My passion is over: if the thorns were fighting against me, I would make an attack on them, and they would be burned up together.

⁸ Your anger against her has been made clear by driving her away; he has taken her away with his storm-wind in the day of his east wind.

³³ By my life, says the Lord, truly, with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with burning wrath let loose, I will be King over you:

³⁵ And I will take you into the waste land of the peoples, and there I will take up the cause with you face to face.

⁹ And he said to me, My grace is enough for you, for my power is made complete in what is feeble. Most gladly, then, will I take pride in my feeble body, so that the power of Christ may be on me. ¹⁰ So I take pleasure in being feeble, in unkind words, in needs, in cruel attacks, in troubles, on account of Christ: for when I am feeble, then am I strong.

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.

¹⁸ Come now, and let us have an argument together, says the Lord: how may your sins which are red like blood be white as snow? how may their dark purple seem like wool?

⁵ Will he be angry for ever? will he keep his wrath to the end? These things you have said, and have done evil and have had your way.

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?

¹⁹ Now, we have knowledge that what the law says is for those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and all men may be judged by God: ²⁰ Because by the works of the law no man is able to have righteousness in his eyes, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. ²¹ But now without the law there is a revelation of the righteousness of God, to which witness is given by the law and the prophets; ²² That is, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all those who have faith; and one man is not different from another,

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

³³ Who will say anything against the saints of God? It is God who makes us clear from evil; ³⁴ Who will give a decision against us? It is Christ Jesus who not only was put to death, but came again from the dead, who is now at the right hand of God, taking our part.

¹¹ See, he goes past me and I see him not: he goes on before, but I have no knowledge of him.

¹⁴ How much less when you say that you do not see him; that the cause is before him, and you are waiting for him.

¹ Why do you keep far away, O Lord? why are you not to be seen in times of trouble?

¹ To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David. Will you for ever put me out of your memory, O Lord? will your face for ever be turned away from me? ² How long is my soul to be in doubt, with sorrow in my heart all the day? how long will he who is against me be given power over me? ³ Let my voice come before you, and give me an answer, O Lord my God; let your light be shining on me, so that the sleep of death may not overtake me;

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

¹⁶ Who only has life for ever, living in light to which no man may come near; whom no man has seen or is able to see: to whom be honour and power for ever. So be it.

⁴⁶ How long, O Lord, will you Keep yourself for ever from our eyes? how long will your wrath be burning like fire?

¹⁷ And I will be waiting for the Lord, whose face is veiled from the house of Jacob, and I will be looking for him.

¹⁹ For I have made him mine so that he may give orders to his children and those of his line after him, to keep the ways of the Lord, to do what is good and right: so that the Lord may do to Abraham as he has said.

² And keep in mind the way by which the Lord your God has taken you through the waste land these forty years, so that he might make low your pride and put you to the test, to see what was in your heart and if you would keep his orders or not.

³ O Lord, keep in mind how I have been true to you with all my heart, and have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah gave way to bitter weeping.

¹¹ But now, put out your hand against all he has, and he will be cursing you to your face. ¹² And the Lord said to the Satan, See, I give all he has into your hands, only do not put a finger on the man himself. And the Satan went out from before the Lord.

⁵ But now, if you only put your hand on his bone and his flesh, he will certainly be cursing you to your face. ⁶ And the Lord said to the Satan, See, he is in your hands, only do not take his life.

⁵ Word of you had come to my ears, but now my eye has seen you. ⁶ For this cause I give witness that what I said is false, and in sorrow I take my seat in the dust. 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. ⁸ And now, take seven oxen and seven sheep, and go to my servant Job, and give a burned offering for yourselves, and my servant Job will make prayer for you, that I may not send punishment on you; 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 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.

¹⁰ For you, O God, have put us to the test: testing us by fire like silver.

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. ³ You keep watch over my steps and my sleep, and have knowledge of all my ways.

³ The heating-pot is for silver and the oven-fire for gold, but the Lord is the tester of hearts.

⁹ And I will make the third part go through the fire, cleaning them as silver is made clean, and testing them as gold is tested: and they will make their prayer to me and I will give them an answer: I will say, It is my people; and they will say, The Lord is my God.

² But by whom may the day of his coming be faced? and who may keep his place when he is seen? for he is like the metal-tester's fire and the cleaner's soap. ³ He will take his seat, testing and cleaning the sons of Levi, burning away the evil from them as from gold and silver; so that they may make offerings to the Lord in righteousness.

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.

¹⁹ But God's strong base is unchanging, having this sign, The Lord has knowledge of those who are his: and, Let everyone by whom the name of the Lord is named be turned away from evil.

¹⁷ By faith Abraham made an offering of Isaac, when he was tested: and he with whom the agreement had been made gave up as an offering the only son of his body,

² Let it be all joy to you, my brothers, when you undergo tests of every sort; ³ Because you have the knowledge that the testing of your faith gives you the power of going on in hope; ⁴ But let this power have its full effect, so that you may be made complete, needing nothing.

¹² There is a blessing on the man who undergoes testing; because, if he has God's approval, he will be given the crown of life, which the Lord has said he will give to those who have love for him.

⁷ So that the true metal of your faith, being of much greater value than gold which, though it comes to an end, is tested by fire, may come to light in praise and glory and honour, at the revelation of Jesus Christ:

² And now, see, the king is before you: and I am old and grey-headed, and my sons are with you: I have been living before your eyes from my early days till now. ³ Here I am: give witness against me before the Lord and before the man on whom he has put the holy oil: whose ox or ass have I taken? to whom have I been untrue? who has been crushed down by me? from whose hand have I taken a price for the blinding of my eyes? I will give it all back to you. ⁴ And they said, You have never been untrue to us or cruel to us; you have taken nothing from any man. ⁵ Then he said, The Lord is witness against you, and the man on whom he has put the holy oil is witness this day that you have seen no wrong in me. And they said, He is witness.

⁹ Still the upright keeps on his way, and he who has clean hands gets new strength.

⁵ I have kept my feet in your ways, my steps have not been turned away.

²⁰ The Lord gives me the reward of my righteousness, because my hands are clean before him. ²¹ For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I have not been turned away in sin from my God. ²² For all his decisions were before me, and I did not put away his laws from me. ²³ And I was upright before him, and I kept myself from sin. ²⁴ Because of this the Lord has given me the reward of my righteousness, because my hands are clean in his eyes.

³ In the words of his mouth are evil and deceit; he has given up being wise and doing good.

¹⁸ Our hearts have not gone back, and our steps have not been turned out of your way;

⁵ But as for such as are turned out of the straight way, the Lord will take them away with the workers of evil. Let peace be on Israel.

⁶ And those who are turned back from going after the Lord, and those who have not made prayer to the Lord or got directions from him.

¹³ And those on the rock are those who with joy give hearing to the word; but having no root, they have faith for a time, and when the test comes they give up. ¹⁴ And those which went among thorns are those who have given hearing, and go on their way, but they are overcome by cares and wealth and the pleasures of life, and they give no fruit. ¹⁵ And those in the good earth are those who, having given ear to the word, keep it with a good and true heart, and in quiet strength give fruit.

¹⁸ And when they had come, he said to them, You yourselves have seen what my life has been like all the time from the day when I first came into Asia, ¹⁹ Doing the Lord's work without pride, through all the sorrow and troubles which came on me because of the evil designs of the Jews:

³³ I have had no desire for any man's silver or gold or clothing. ³⁴ You yourselves have seen that with these hands I got what was necessary for me and those who were with me.

⁷ To those who go on with good works in the hope of glory and honour and salvation from death, he will give eternal life:

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;

²⁰ For if, after they have got free from the unclean things of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again taken in the net and overcome, their last condition is worse than their first. ²¹ For it would have been better for them to have had no knowledge of the way of righteousness, than to go back again from the holy law which was given to them, after having knowledge of it. ²² They are an example of that true saying, The dog has gone back to the food it had put out, and the pig which had been washed to its rolling in the dirty earth.

¹⁰ So I would still have comfort, and I would have joy in the pains of death, for I have not been false to the words of the Holy One.

²² Be pleased to take teaching from his mouth, and let his words be stored up in your heart.

⁹ The fear of the Lord is clean, and has no end; the decisions of the Lord are true and full of righteousness. ¹⁰ More to be desired are they than gold, even than much shining gold; sweeter than the dropping honey.

¹¹ I have kept your sayings secretly in my heart, so that I might do no sin against you.

¹⁰³ How sweet are your sayings to my taste! truly, they are sweeter than honey in my mouth!

¹²⁷ For this reason I have greater love far your teachings than for gold, even for shining gold.

¹⁶ But to me your word is a joy, making my heart glad; for I am named by your name, O Lord God of armies.

⁴² And the Lord said, Who then is the wise and responsible servant whom his lord will put in control of his family, to give them their food at the right time?

⁴⁶ The lord of that servant will come at a time when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not ready for him, and he will have him cut in two and will give him his part in the fate of those who have no faith;

³² But he said to them, I have food of which you have no knowledge.

³⁴ Jesus said, My food is to do the pleasure of him who sent me and to make his work complete.

⁶⁶ Because of what he said, a number of the disciples went back and would no longer go with him. ⁶⁷ So Jesus said to the twelve, Have you a desire to go away? ⁶⁸ Then Simon Peter gave this answer: Lord, to whom are we to go? you have the words of eternal life; ⁶⁹ And we have faith and are certain that you are the Holy One of God.

³¹ Then Jesus said to the Jews who had faith in him, If you keep my word, then you are truly my disciples;

²² Making strong the souls of the disciples, saying to them that they were to keep the faith, and that we have to go through troubles of all sorts to come into the kingdom of God.

³⁸ But the upright man will be living by his faith; and if he goes back, my soul will have no pleasure in him. ³⁹ But we are not of those who go back to destruction; but of those who have faith even to the salvation of the soul.

² Be full of desire for the true milk of the word, as babies at their mothers' breasts, so that you may go on to salvation;

¹⁹ They went out from us but they were not of us; if they had been of us they would still be with us: but they went out from us so that it might be made clear that they were not of us.

¹⁹ God is not a man, to say what is false; or the son of man, that his purpose may be changed: what he has said, will he not do? and will he not give effect to the words of his mouth? ²⁰ See, I have had orders to give blessing: and he has given a blessing which I have no power to take away.

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? ¹³ God's wrath may not be turned back; the helpers of Rahab were bent down under him.

¹⁰ If he goes on his way, shutting a man up and putting him to death, who may make him go back from his purpose?

¹⁴ Truly, there is no building up of what is pulled down by him; when a man is shut up by him, no one may let him loose.

²⁹ (UNTRANSLATED TEXT)

³ But our God is in heaven: he has done whatever was pleasing to him.

⁶ The Lord has done whatever was pleasing to him, in heaven, and on the earth, in the seas and in all the deep waters.

²¹ A man's heart may be full of designs, but the purpose of the Lord is unchanging.

¹⁵ That which is bent may not be made straight, and that which is not there may not be numbered.

¹⁴ I am certain that whatever God does will be for ever. No addition may be made to it, nothing may be taken from it; and God has done it so that man may be in fear before him.

²⁴ The Lord has taken an oath, saying, My design will certainly come about, and my purpose will be effected: ²⁵ To let the Assyrian be broken in my land, and crushed under foot on my mountains: there will his yoke be taken away from them, and his rule over them come to an end. ²⁶ This is the purpose for all the earth: and this is the hand stretched out over all nations. ²⁷ For it is the purpose of the Lord of armies, and who will make it of no effect? when his hand is stretched out, by whom may it be turned back?

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;

³⁵ And all the people of the earth are as nothing: he does his pleasure in the army of heaven and among the people of the earth: and no one is able to keep back his hand, or say to him, What are you doing?

¹⁹ But you will say to me, Why does he still make us responsible? who is able to go against his purpose?

⁹ Having made clear to us the secret of his purpose, in agreement with the design which he had in mind, to put into his hands ¹⁰ The ordering of the times when they are complete, so that all things might come to a head in Christ, the things in heaven and the things on the earth; in him, I say, ¹¹ In whom we have a heritage, being marked out from the first in his purpose who does all things in agreement with his designs;

¹⁷ Every good and true thing is given to us from heaven, coming from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change or any shade made by turning.

³ So I have for my heritage months of pain to no purpose, and nights of weariness are given to me.

¹⁹ Your way was in the sea, and your road in the great waters; there was no knowledge of your footsteps.

² Dark clouds are round him; his kingdom is based on righteousness and right judging.

²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob, such words as these, O Israel, The Lord's eyes are not on my way, and my God gives no attention to my cause? ²⁸ Have you no knowledge of it? has it not come to your ears? The eternal God, the Lord, the Maker of the ends of the earth, is never feeble or tired; there is no searching out of his wisdom.

⁹ The voice of the Lord is crying out to the town: Give ear, you tribes and the meeting of the town.

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.

³ So that no man might be moved by these troubles; because you see that these things are part of God's purpose for us.

⁹ For God's purpose for us is not wrath, but salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

⁸ And, A stone of falling, a rock of trouble; the word is the cause of their fall, because they go against it, and this was the purpose of God.

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.

³ If only I had knowledge of where he might be seen, so that I might come even to his seat!

²³ For the fear of God kept me back, and because of his power I might not do such things.

³ I will keep God in memory, with sounds of grief; my thoughts are troubled, and my spirit is overcome. Selah.

¹²⁰ My flesh is moved for fear of you; I give honour to your decisions.

¹⁶ Hearing it, my inner parts were moved, and my lips were shaking at the sound; my bones became feeble, and my steps were uncertain under me: I gave sounds of grief in the day of trouble, when his forces came up against the people in bands.

³ Give ear, O Israel: today you are going forward to the fight; let your heart be strong; do not let uncontrolled fear overcome you because of those who are against you;

²⁰ And she said to them, Do not let my name be Naomi, but Mara, for the Ruler of all has given me a bitter fate.

² By the life of God, who has taken away my right; and of the Ruler of all, who has made my soul bitter;

¹⁴ I am flowing away like water, and all my bones are out of place: my heart is like wax, it has become soft in my body.

¹⁶ The heat of your wrath has gone over me; I am broken by your cruel punishments.

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.

¹⁶ For I will not give punishment for ever, or be angry without end: for from me breath goes out; and I it was who made the souls.

⁴⁶ So that your hearts may not become feeble and full of fear because of the news which will go about in the land; for a story will go about one year, and after that in another year another story, and violent acts in the land, ruler against ruler.

¹⁵ Sorrow for the day! for the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Ruler of all it will come.

²⁰ For this cause I will let you go to your fathers and be put in your last resting-place in peace, and your eyes will not see all the evil which I will send on this place. So they took this news back to the king.

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!

²² He has no hope of coming safe out of the dark, and his fate will be the sword;

⁶ The light is dark in his tent, and the light shining over him is put out.

¹⁸ He is sent away from the light into the dark; he is forced out of the world.

⁸ My way is walled up by him so that I may not go by: he has made my roads dark.

¹¹ Your light is made dark so that you are unable to see, and you are covered by a mass of waters.

¹ The upright man goes to his death, and no one gives a thought to it; and god-fearing men are taken away, and no one is troubled by it; for the upright man is taken away because of evil-doing, and goes into peace.