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4 Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?

5 Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?

6 Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants?

7 Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?

8 Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more. 9 Behold the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?

10 None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?

11 Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.

12 I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion.

13 Who can discover the face of his garment? or who can come to him with his double bridle?

14 Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about.

seal.

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them.

His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close

One is so near to another, that no air can come between

17 They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered.

18 By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

19 Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.

20 Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.

21 His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.

22 In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into

joy before him.

23 The flakes of his flesh are joined together: they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved.

24 His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.

25 When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves.

26 The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.

27 He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.

28 The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble.

29 Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.

30 Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire.

31 He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.

32 He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary.

33 Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear. 34 He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.

CHAPTER 42.

HEN Job answered the LORD, and said,

THE

2 I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.

3 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.

4 Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.

5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.

6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

7 And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.

8 Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right like my servant Job.

9 So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the LORD commanded them: the LORD also accepted Job.

10 And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.

11 Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and everyone an earring of gold.

12 So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.

13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.

14 And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch.

15 And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.

16 After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations.

17 So Job died, being old and full of days.

So passed from this earthly condition of being, a mortal who, like thousands of others, had experienced extremes of what we consider prosperity and adversity -of human success and human disaster. His early life was in the agreeable sunshine of ease and abundance, but followed by disappointments and fortuitous calamities, which brought to him severest physical and mental suffering; nevertheless this was his need, for it was the means of bringing to him an understanding of the only true God, and so, while his human wants met with defeat, his Spiritual needs, were divinely supplied.

And as in the days of Job, even so in this later age, similar results, follow similar conditions. Such chastisement comes to a man of his capacity because he brings it upon himself. Suffering was the best thing that had happened to him, for it burned up his dross and purified his gold. It destroyed his folly and weakness and so brought forth his "righteousness as the light, and his judgment as the noonday." (Ps. 37:6.) Therefore his final gain, was more than his earlier loss, for not only was his own condition made better in every way-but he was enabled to help his old friends and his new family. (Job, 42:9 and 13.)

And so a man of good desires, but hampered by folly, carelessness and self, was regenerated and transformed into an instrument for doing good to his fellow men. His condition thenceforth, is grandly described in the first three verses of the Book of Psalms.

JOB AND HIS FRIENDS

CHAPTER 1.

Preliminary.

An imaginative dialogue-given as a possible illustration of what may have been thought of Job, by his contemporaries and acquaintances.

Scene:

A roadside small farm and inn, in a ravine leading from the hill country to the valley, in the land of Uz.

CHARACTERS:

Jonas, keeper of the inn, and a small farmer.
Zadok, an upper country squire and leading citizen.
Two or three herders- and drivers.

Mrs. Jonas and children.

Farm animals, etc.

In the forenoon, Zadok arrives at the inn.

Jonas. I bow to you, Zadok!

Zadok. All greetings to you!

Jonas. I have been expecting you for several days.
Zadok.-How is that?

Jonas. I heard you were collecting for Job's donation,* and were coming down this way.

Zadok. Yes, I am greatly interested in Job's case, and have been working on this line off and on for some weeks.

*For an account of Job's donation see, Job 42:11.

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