Job 7 Cross References - BBE

¹ Has not man his ordered time of trouble on the earth? and are not his days like the days of a servant working for payment? ² As a servant desiring the shades of evening, and a workman looking for his payment: ³ So I have for my heritage months of pain to no purpose, and nights of weariness are given to me. ⁴ When I go to my bed, I say, When will it be time to get up? but the night is long, and I am turning from side to side till morning light. ⁵ My flesh is covered with worms and dust; my skin gets hard and then is cracked again. 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. 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. 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. ¹² Am I a sea, or a sea-beast, that you put a watch over me? ¹³ When I say, In my bed I will have comfort, there I will get rest from my disease; ¹⁴ Then you send dreams to me, and visions of fear; ¹⁵ So that a hard death seems better to my soul than my pains. 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.

⁵⁰ And let the years be numbered from the time when he gave himself to his owner till the year of Jubilee, and the price given for him will be in relation to the number of years, on the scale of the payment of a servant.

¹⁸ Let it not seem hard to you that you have to send him away free; for he has been working for you for six years, which is twice the regular time for a servant: and the blessing of the Lord your God will be on you in everything you do.

⁷ But trouble is man's fate from birth, as the flames go up from the fire.

⁵ If his days are ordered, and you have knowledge of the number of his months, having given him a fixed limit past which he may not go; ⁶ Let your eyes be turned away from him, and take your hand from him, so that he may have pleasure at the end of his day, like a servant working for payment.

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.

⁴ Lord, give me knowledge of my end, and of the measure of my days, so that I may see how feeble I am.

⁸ No man has authority over the wind, to keep the wind; or is ruler over the day of his death. In war no man's time is free, and evil will not keep the sinner safe.

¹⁶ For so has the Lord said to me, In a year, by the years of a servant working for payment, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end:

⁵ Go to Hezekiah, and say, The Lord, the God of David, your father, says, Your prayer has come to my ears, and I have seen your weeping: see, I will give you fifteen more years of life.

² Say kind words to the heart of Jerusalem, crying out to her that her time of trouble is ended, that her punishment is complete; that she has been rewarded by the Lord's hand twice over for all her sins.

¹ For the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a house, who went out early in the morning to get workers into his vine-garden. ² And when he had made an agreement with the workmen for a penny a day, he sent them into his vine-garden. ³ And he went out about the third hour, and saw others in the market-place doing nothing; ⁴ And he said to them, Go into the vine-garden with the others, and whatever is right I will give you. And they went to work. ⁵ Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same. ⁶ And about the eleventh hour he went out and saw others doing nothing; and he says to them, Why are you here all the day doing nothing? ⁷ They say to him, Because no man has given us work. He says to them, Go in with the rest, into the vine-garden. ⁸ And when evening came, the lord of the vine-garden said to his manager, Let the workers come, and give them their payment, from the last to the first. ⁹ And when those men came who had gone to work at the eleventh hour, they were given every man a penny. ¹⁰ Then those who came first had the idea that they would get more; and they, like the rest, were given a penny. ¹¹ And when they got it, they made a protest against the master of the house, ¹² Saying, These last have done only one hour's work, and you have made them equal to us, who have undergone the hard work of the day and the burning heat. ¹³ But he in answer said to one of them, Friend, I do you no wrong: did you not make an agreement with me for a penny? ¹⁴ Take what is yours, and go away; it is my pleasure to give to this last, even as to you. ¹⁵ Have I not the right to do as seems good to me in my house? or is your eye evil, because I am good?

⁹ Then Jesus said in answer, Are there not twelve hours in the day? A man may go about in the day without falling, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰ But if a man goes about in the night, he may have a fall because the light is not in him.

¹³ Do not be cruel to your neighbour or take what is his; do not keep back a servant's payment from him all night till the morning.

¹⁵ Give him his payment day by day, not keeping it back over night; for he is poor and his living is dependent on it; and if his cry against you comes to the ears of the Lord, it will be judged as sin in you.

¹³¹ My mouth was open wide, waiting with great desire for your teachings.

⁶ My hands are stretched out to you: my soul is turned to you, like a land in need of water. Selah.

⁴ Make war ready against her; up! let us go up when the sun is high. Sorrow is ours! for the day is turned and the shades of evening are stretched out.

⁵ And I will come near to you for judging; I will quickly be a witness against the wonder-workers, against those who have been untrue in married life, against those who take false oaths; against those who keep back from the servant his payment, and who are hard on the widow and the child without a father, who do not give his rights to the man from a strange country, and have no fear of me, says the Lord of armies.

⁴ See, the money which you falsely kept back from the workers cutting the grass in your field, is crying out against you; and the cries of those who took in your grain have come to the ears of the Lord of armies.

⁷ But now he has overcome me with weariness and fear, and I am in the grip of all my trouble.

² If only I might again be as I was in the months which are past, in the days when God was watching over me!

⁶ The voice of my sorrow is a weariness to me; all the night I make my bed wet with weeping; it is watered by the drops flowing from my eyes.

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.

¹⁴ I have seen all the works which are done under the sun; all is to no purpose, and desire for wind.

⁶⁷ In the morning you will say, If only it was evening! And at evening you will say, If only morning would come! Because of the fear in your hearts and the things which your eyes will see.

¹³ When I say, In my bed I will have comfort, there I will get rest from my disease; ¹⁴ Then you send dreams to me, and visions of fear;

¹² They are changing night into day; they say, The light is near the dark.

¹⁷ The flesh is gone from my bones, and they give me no rest; there is no end to my pains.

⁴ You keep my eyes from sleep; I am so troubled that no words come.

²³ I am gone like the shade when it is stretched out: I am forced out of my place like a locust.

⁶ My soul is watching for the Lord more than those who are watching for the morning; yes, more than the watchers for the morning.

¹¹ O troubled one, storm-crushed, uncomforted! see, your stones will be framed in fair colours, and your bases will be sapphires.

⁷ And the Satan went out from before the Lord, and sent on Job an evil disease covering his skin from his feet to the top of his head. ⁸ And he took a broken bit of a pot, and, seated in the dust, was rubbing himself with the sharp edge of it.

³¹ Then you will have me pushed into the dust, so that I will seem disgusting to my very clothing.

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

²⁶ And (UNTRANSLATED TEXT) without my flesh I will see God;

²⁰ The public place of his town has no more knowledge of him, and his name has gone from the memory of men: he is rooted up like a dead tree.

¹⁸ With great force he takes a grip of my clothing, pulling me by the neck of my coat. ¹⁹ Truly God has made me low, even to the earth, and I have become like dust.

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.

⁶ The body, from head to foot, is all diseased; it is a mass of open wounds, marks of blows, and broken flesh: the flow of blood has not been stopped, and no oil has been put on the wounds.

¹¹ Your pride has gone down into the underworld, and the noise of your instruments of music; the worms are under you, and your body is covered with them.

²⁴ And they will go out to see the dead bodies of the men who have done evil against me: for their worm will ever be living, and their fire will never be put out, and they will be a thing of fear to all flesh.

⁴³ And there, at the memory of your ways and of all the things you did to make yourselves unclean, you will have bitter hate for yourselves because of all the evil things you have done.

²³ And straight away the angel of the Lord sent a disease on him, because he did not give the glory to God: and his flesh was wasted away by worms, and so he came to his end.

¹¹ Have I strength to go on waiting, or have I any end to be looking forward to?

²⁵ My days go quicker than a post-runner: they go in flight, they see no good.

¹⁵ Truly, he will put an end to me; I have no hope; but I will not give way in argument before him;

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

¹¹ My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the desires of my heart.

¹⁵ Where then is my hope? and who will see my desire?

⁵ (UNTRANSLATED TEXT) ⁶ In the morning it is green; in the evening it is cut down, and becomes dry.

¹¹ My days are like a shade which is stretched out; I am dry like the grass.

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.

⁴ Man is like a breath: his life is like a shade which is quickly gone.

³² The sinner is overturned in his evil-doing, but the upright man has hope in his righteousness.

¹² My resting-place is pulled up and taken away from me like a herdsman's tent: my life is rolled up like a linen-worker's thread; I am cut off from the cloth on the frame: from day even to night you give me up to pain. ¹³ I am crying out with pain till the morning; it is as if a lion was crushing all my bones.

⁶ A voice of one saying, Give a cry! And I said, What is my cry to be? All flesh is grass, and all its strength like the flower of the field. ⁷ The grass becomes dry, the flower is dead; because the breath of the Lord goes over it: truly the people is grass.

²⁵ Do not let your foot be without shoes, or your throat dry from need of water: but you said, There is no hope: no, for I have been a lover of strange gods, and after them I will go.

¹² That you were at that time without Christ, being cut off from any part in Israel's rights as a nation, having no part in God's agreement, having no hope, and without God in the world.

¹¹ For when the sun comes up with its burning heat, the grass gets dry and the grace of its form is gone with the falling flower; so the man of wealth comes to nothing in his ways.

¹⁴ When you are not certain what will take place tomorrow. What is your life? It is a mist, which is seen for a little time and then is gone.

¹³ So make your minds ready, and keep on the watch, hoping with all your power for the grace which is to come to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

²⁴ For it is said, All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the grass. The grass becomes dry and the flower dead:

³⁶ And Jacob their father said to them, You have taken my children from me: Joseph is gone and Simeon is gone, and now you would take Benjamin away; all these things have come on me.

⁸ Keep in mind, O Lord, the order you gave your servant Moses, saying, If you do wrong I will send you wandering among the peoples:

⁹ O keep in mind that you made me out of earth; and will you send me back again to dust?

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.

¹⁸ Keep this in mind, O Lord, that your haters have said cruel things, and that your name has been looked down on by a people of evil behaviour.

²² Up! O God, be the judge of your cause; keep in mind the bitter things which the man of evil behaviour says against you every day.

³⁹ So he kept in mind that they were only flesh; a breath which is quickly gone, and will not come again.

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

⁵⁰ Keep in mind, O Lord, the shame of your servants, and how the bitter words of all the people have come into my heart;

¹⁵ O Lord, you have knowledge: keep me in mind and come to my help, and give their right reward to those who are attacking me; take me not away, for you are slow to be angry: see how I have undergone shame because of you from all those who make little of your word;

¹⁸ If he is taken away from his place, then it will say, I have not seen you.

²⁷ And you put chains on my feet, watching all my ways, and making a limit for my steps;

³ Is it on such a one as this that your eyes are fixed, with the purpose of judging him?

⁹ The eye which saw him sees him no longer; and his place has no more knowledge of him.

³⁶ But he came to an end, and there was no sign of him; I made a search for him and he was not there.

¹¹ By the weight of your wrath against man's sin, the glory of his form is wasted away; truly every man is but a breath. Selah.

⁸ You have put our evil doings before you, our secret sins in the light of your face. ⁹ For all our days have gone by in your wrath; our years come to an end like a breath.

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.

²¹ Before I go to the place from which I will not come back, to the land where all is dark and black,

⁸ They are higher than heaven; what is there for you to do? deeper than the underworld, and outside your knowledge;

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.

¹⁵ Fears have come on me; my hope is gone like the wind, and my well-being like a cloud.

¹¹ The thick cloud is weighted with thunder-flame, and the cloud sends out its light;

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

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.

²¹ The east wind takes him up and he is gone; he is forced violently out of his place.

²³ Men make signs of joy because of him, driving him from his place with sounds of hissing.

¹⁶ The wind goes over it and it is gone; and its place sees it no longer.

²¹ And they said to one another, Truly, we did wrong to our brother, for we saw his grief of mind, and we did not give ear to his prayers; that is why this trouble has come on us.

¹⁰ And with grief in her soul, weeping bitterly, she made her prayer to the Lord.

²⁷ And when she came to where the man of God was on the hill, she put her hands round his feet; and Gehazi came near with the purpose of pushing her away; but the man of God said, Let her be, for her soul is bitter in her; and the Lord has kept it secret from me, and has not given me word of it. ²⁸ Then she said, Did I make a request to my lord for a son? did I not say, Do not give me false words?

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

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

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.

¹³ Keep quiet, and let me say what is in my mind, whatever may come to me.

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?

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?

²⁵ And another comes to his end with a bitter soul, without ever tasting good.

³ My heart was burning in my breast; while I was deep in thought the fire was lighted; then I said with my tongue,

⁹ I have given news of righteousness in the great meeting; O Lord, you have knowledge that I have not kept back my words.

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.

³⁷ And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and became sad and very troubled. ³⁸ Then says he to them, My soul is very sad, even to death: keep watch with me here.

⁴⁴ And being in great trouble of soul, the force of his prayer became stronger, and great drops, like blood, came from him, falling to the earth.

⁴ For out of much trouble and pain of heart and much weeping I sent my letter to you; not to give you sorrow, but so that you might see how great is the love which I have to you.

¹⁷ What is man, that you have made him great, and that your attention is fixed on him,

⁶ On what were its pillars based, or who put down its angle-stone, ⁷ When the morning stars made songs together, and all the sons of the gods gave cries of joy? ⁸ Or where were you when the sea came to birth, pushing out from its secret place; ⁹ When I made the cloud its robe, and put thick clouds as bands round it, ¹⁰ Ordering a fixed limit for it, with locks and doors; ¹¹ And said, So far you may come, and no farther; and here the pride of your waves will be stopped?

¹ Is it possible for Leviathan to be pulled out with a fish-hook, or for a hook to be put through the bone of his mouth? ² Will you put a cord into his nose, or take him away with a cord round his tongue? ³ Will he make prayers to you, or say soft words to you? ⁴ Will he make an agreement with you, so that you may take him as a servant for ever? ⁵ Will you make sport with him, as with a bird? or put him in chains for your young women? ⁶ Will the fishermen make profit out of him? will they have him cut up for the traders? ⁷ Will you put sharp-pointed irons into his skin, or fish-spears into his head? ⁸ Only put your hand on him, and see what a fight you will have; you will not do it again! ⁹ Truly, the hope of his attacker is false; he is overcome even on seeing him! ¹⁰ He is so cruel that no one is ready to go against him. Who then is able to keep his place before me? ¹¹ Who ever went against me, and got the better of me? There is no one under heaven! ¹² I will not keep quiet about the parts of his body, or about his power, and the strength of his frame. ¹³ Who has ever taken off his outer skin? who may come inside his inner coat of iron? ¹⁴ Who has made open the doors of his face? Fear is round about his teeth. ¹⁵ His back is made of lines of plates, joined tight together, one against the other, like a stamp. ¹⁶ One is so near to the other that no air may come between them. ¹⁷ They take a grip of one another; they are joined together, so that they may not be parted. ¹⁸ His sneezings give out flames, and his eyes are like the eyes of the dawn. ¹⁹ Out of his mouth go burning lights, and flames of fire are jumping up. ²⁰ Smoke comes out of his nose, like a pot boiling on the fire. ²¹ His breath puts fire to coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth. ²² Strength is in his neck, and fear goes dancing before him. ²³ The plates of his flesh are joined together, fixed, and not to be moved. ²⁴ His heart is as strong as a stone, hard as the lower crushing-stone. ²⁵ When he gets ready for the fight, the strong are overcome with fear. ²⁶ The sword may come near him but is not able to go through him; the spear, or the arrow, or the sharp-pointed iron. ²⁷ Iron is to him as dry grass, and brass as soft wood. ²⁸ The arrow is not able to put him to flight: stones are no more to him than dry stems. ²⁹ A thick stick is no better than a leaf of grass, and he makes sport of the onrush of the spear. ³⁰ Under him are sharp edges of broken pots: as if he was pulling a grain-crushing instrument over the wet earth. ³¹ The deep is boiling like a pot of spices, and the sea like a perfume-vessel. ³² After him his way is shining, so that the deep seems white. ³³ On earth there is not another like him, who is made without fear. ³⁴ Everything which is high goes in fear of him; he is king over all the sons of pride.

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.

² Son of man, make a song of grief for Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and say to him, Young lion of the nations, destruction has come on you; and you were like a sea-beast in the seas, sending out bursts of water, troubling the waters with your feet, making their streams dirty. ³ This is what the Lord has said: My net will be stretched out over you, and I will take you up in my fishing-net.

³ So I have for my heritage months of pain to no purpose, and nights of weariness are given to me. ⁴ When I go to my bed, I say, When will it be time to get up? but the night is long, and I am turning from side to side till morning light.

²⁷ If I say, I will put my grief out of mind, I will let my face be sad no longer and I will be bright; ²⁸ I go in fear of all my pains; I am certain that I will not be free from sin in your eyes.

⁵ And these two had a dream on the same night; the chief wine-servant and the chief bread-maker of the king of Egypt, who were in prison, the two of them had dreams with a special sense. ⁶ And in the morning when Joseph came to them he saw that they were looking sad. ⁷ And he said to the servants of Pharaoh who were in prison with him, Why are you looking so sad?

⁸ And in the morning his spirit was troubled; and he sent for all the wise men of Egypt and all the holy men, and put his dream before them, but no one was able to give him the sense of it.

¹³ When Gideon came there, a man was giving his friend an account of his dream, saying, See, I had a dream about a cake of barley bread which, falling into the tents of Midian, came on to the tent, overturning it so that it was stretched out flat on the earth. ¹⁴ And his friend in answer said, This is certainly the sword of Gideon, the son of Joash, the men of Israel: into their hands God has given up all the army of Midian.

¹ In the second year of the rule of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was troubled and his sleep went from him.

¹⁹ And while he was on the judge's seat, his wife sent to him, saying, Have nothing to do with that upright man, for I have had much trouble this day in a dream because of him.

²³ Now when Ahithophel saw that his suggestion was not acted on, he got his ass ready, and went back to his house, to the town where he came from, and having put his house in order, he put himself to death by hanging; so he came to his end and was put in the resting-place of his father.

⁵ And he put down the silver in the Temple and went out, and put himself to death by hanging.

⁴⁶ Then Rebekah said to Isaac, My life is a weariness to me because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob takes a wife from among the daughters of Heth, such as these, the women of this land, of what use will my life be to me?

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;

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!

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

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,

⁶ Let your eyes be turned away from him, and take your hand from him, so that he may have pleasure at the end of his day, like a servant working for payment.

¹⁰ No longer let your hand be hard on me; I am wasted by the blows of your hand.

⁹ Truly men of low birth are nothing, and men of high position are not what they seem; if they are put in the scales together they are less than a breath.

³³ So their days were wasted like a breath, and their years in trouble.

¹¹ There are words without number for increasing what is to no purpose, but what is man profited by them? ¹² Who is able to say what is good for man in life all the days of his foolish life which he goes through like a shade? who will say what is to be after him under the sun?

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.

¹⁴ After whom has the king of Israel come out? for whom are you searching? for a dead dog, an insect.

¹² Am I a sea, or a sea-beast, that you put a watch over me?

¹⁴ If he made his spirit come back to him, taking his breath into himself again, ¹⁵ All flesh would come to an end together, and man would go back to the dust.

⁴ What is man, that you keep him in mind? the son of man, that you take him into account?

³ Lord, what is man, that you keep him in mind? or the son of man that you take him into account?

⁶ But a certain writer has given his witness, saying, What is man, that you keep him in mind? what is the son of man, that you take him into account?

¹ Now after these things, God put Abraham to the test, and said to him, Abraham; and he said, Here am I.

⁵ You may not go down on your faces before them or give them worship: for I, the Lord your God, am a God who will not give his honour to another; and I will send punishment on the children for the wrongdoing of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation of my haters;

³⁴ But now, go, take the people into that place of which I have given you word; see, my angel will go before you: but when the time of my judging has come, I will send punishment on them for their sin.

¹⁶ Who gave you manna for your food in the waste land, a food which your fathers had never seen; so that your pride might be broken and your hearts tested for your good in the end;

¹⁴ The dead will not come back to life: their spirits will not come back to earth; for this cause you have sent destruction on them, so that the memory of them is dead.

⁷ So the Lord of armies has said, See, I will make them soft in the fire and put them to the test; this I will do because of their evil-doing.

¹⁰ Till a number are tested and make themselves clean; and the evil-doers will do evil; for not one of the evil-doers will have knowledge; but all will be made clear to those who are wise.

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.

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:

¹⁸ He would not let me take my breath, but I would be full of bitter grief.

³ My soul is in bitter trouble; and you, O Lord, how long?

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;

³ How long will sinners, O Lord, how long will sinners have joy over us?

¹⁰ And they gave a great cry, saying, How long will it be, O Ruler, holy and true, before you take your place as judge and give punishment for our blood to those on the earth?

⁶ You are the Lord, even you only; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their armies, the earth and all things in it, the seas and everything in them; and you keep them from destruction: and the armies of heaven are your worshippers.

²⁴ In place of my food I have grief, and cries of sorrow come from me like water.

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.

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. ¹² Am I a sea, or a sea-beast, that you put a watch over me?

²⁹ You will not let me be clear of sin! why then do I take trouble for nothing? ³⁰ If I am washed with snow water, and make my hands clean with soap; ³¹ Then you will have me pushed into the dust, so that I will seem disgusting to my very clothing.

²⁶ For you put bitter things on record against me, and send punishment on me for the sins of my early years;

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

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.

⁵ Is not your evil-doing great? and there is no end to your sins.

³³ If I kept my evil doings covered, and my sin in the secret of my breast,

⁹ I am clean, without sin; I am washed, and there is no evil in me:

²⁷ He makes a song, saying, I did wrong, turning from the straight way, but he did not give me the reward of my sin.

⁶ If you have done wrong, is he any the worse for it? and if your sins are great in number, what is it to him?

¹² Their backs will be turned when you make ready the cords of your bow against their faces.

⁶ Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judging is like the great deep; O Lord, you give life to man and beast.

⁴ O Lord God of armies, how long will your wrath be burning against the rest of your people?

¹² With his bow bent, he has made me the mark for his arrows.

¹⁰ And after the people had been numbered, David's heart was troubled. And David said to the Lord, Great has been my sin in doing this; but now, O Lord, be pleased to take away the sin of your servant, for I have done very foolishly

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.

¹⁴ That, if I did wrong, you would take note of it, and would not make me clear from sin:

²³ What is the number of my evil-doings and my sins? give me knowledge of them. ²⁴ Why is your face veiled from me, as if I was numbered among your haters?

³² He is taken to his last resting-place, and keeps watch over it. ³³ The earth of the valley covering his bones is sweet to him, and all men come after him, as there were unnumbered before him.

¹⁵ As for man, his days are as grass: his beautiful growth is like the flower of the field.

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

¹⁹ Your dead will come back; their dead bodies will come to life again. Those in the dust, awaking from their sleep, will send out a song; for your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the shades.

⁹ Be not very angry, O Lord, and do not keep our sins in mind for ever: give ear to our prayer, for we are all your people.

⁴² We have done wrong and gone against your law; we have not had your forgiveness. ⁴³ Covering yourself with wrath you have gone after us, cutting us off without pity; ⁴⁴ Covering yourself with a cloud, so that prayer may not get through.

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.

² And a number of those who are sleeping in the dust of the earth will come out of their sleep, some to eternal life and some to eternal shame.

² Take with you words, and come back to the Lord; say to him, Let there be forgiveness for all wrongdoing, so that we may take what is good, and give in payment the fruit of our lips.

¹⁸ Who is a God like you, offering forgiveness for evil-doing and overlooking the sins of the rest of his heritage? he does not keep his wrath for ever, because his delight is in mercy. ¹⁹ He will again have pity on us; he will put our sins under his feet: and you will send all our sins down into the heart of the sea.

²⁹ The day after, John sees Jesus coming to him and says, See, here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

¹⁴ Who gave himself for us, so that he might make us free from all wrongdoing, and make for himself a people clean in heart and on fire with good works.

⁹ If we say openly that we have done wrong, he is upright and true to his word, giving us forgiveness of sins and making us clean from all evil.

⁵ And you have knowledge that he came to take away sin: and in him there is no sin.