begun their course of feasting, and were eat ing and drinking at their eldest brother's house, there came a messenger unto Job, and said,

8. The oxen were ploughing, and the asses feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and. 1. only am escaped alone to tell thee.

9. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The lightning from heaven hath smitten the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them, and I only have escaped alone to tell thee.

10. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, the Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels and carried them away, and have likewise slain thy servants, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

11. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking in their eldest brother's house, and there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon them, and they are dead, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.

12. Then Job arose, and rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down upon. the ground and worshipped, and said,

13. Helpless and destitute came I into theworld, poor and feeble must I depart; out of

it; the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.

14. After this Job was smitten with soreboils, from the sole of his foot unto his crown; and he took a potsherd to scrape himself withal, and sat down among the ashes.

15. And being tempted to entertain hard thoughts of God, and to express himself in the language of impiety, he pertinently answered, What! shall we receive good at the hand of God, and not receive evil?

16. When Job's three friends heard of all the evil that was come upon him, they came from their respective homes, at an appointed time, to mourn with him and to comfort him.

17. And when they saw him afar off, they lifted up their voices and wept; and they rent every man his mantle and sprinkled dust on their heads towards heaven.

18. And they sat down with him upon the ground, several days, lamenting in solemn silence, his deplorable condition, for they saw. that his grief was very great.

"His friends around the deep affliction mourn'd,
Felt all his pangs and groan for groan return'dˇ';
In anguish of their hearts their mantles rent,
And seven long days in solemn silence spent ;.
A debt of reverence to distress so great!
Thus Job contain'd no more, laments his fate.

CHAP. II.

Job's Lamentation.

"At length the suffering man, with grief opprest
The bitter sorrows of his heart express'd,
And thus devoted to eternal shame,

His natal day whence all his sorrows came.
I'm but a stranger and a pilgrim here
In these wild regions, wand'ring and forlorn,
Restless and sighing for my native home,
Longing to reach my weary space of life.”

1. AT length Job gave utterance to the fulness of his grief, in language expressive of the greatest bitterness of soul, and said,

2. Why died I not from my birth? why did I not perish as soon as I was born?

3. Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck? Why was any care taken to support a life that would be so miserable?

4. For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept and been at rest.

5. The sods of the valley had been sweet unto me and the grave proved a quiet retreat. 6. There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest.

7. There the prisoners rest together, and hear not the voice of the oppressor; the small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master.

8. But I live to experience sorrow, and to complain of existence itself as a burden.

9. Wherefore is life given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul..

10. Who long for death, but it cometh not, and search for it more than for hidden treas

ures.

11. Who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad. when they can find the grave.

12. Why is light given to a man, whose way is hid and whom God hath hedged in? who knows not which way to turn himself, and finds uo comfort but in the grave?

13. For my sighing cometh before I rise, and my groanings are poured out like water.

14. For the thing which I greatly feared hath come upon me, and that which I dreaded hath overtaken me.

15. I have no more ease, my tranquility is departed, neither have I any rest, but terror cometh.

16. Bereaved, of all my children, deprived of all my property, and visited with a most grievous and painful disease; alas! there is nothing to cheer me, there are none to comfort:

Thus Job recites his grief, regrets his fate:

"His day of birth, its inauspicious light,
He wishes sunk in endles shades of night,
And blotted from the year; nor fears to crave
Death, instant death, impatient för the grave,
That seat of bliss, that mansion of repose,
Where rest and mortals are no longer foes."

CHAP. III.

Eliphaz passes some severe Strictures.

"And now Eliphaz venerably grave,
His eldest friend this reprehension gave."

1. WHEN Job had finished his pathetic complaint, Eliphaz, (one of his visiting friends) answered and said,

2. If we assay to commune with thee, wilt thou be grieved? but who can withhold himself from speaking?

3. Behold, thou hast instructed many thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast administered consolation to the afflicted, and encouraged even the desponding to hope.

4. But now the affliction thou didst soothe in others is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled; thou dost not practice thy own lesson.

5. Consider, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?

6. Even as I have seen, they who plough iniquity and sow wickedness, reap the same, and are consumed by the breath of the Almighty.

7. In the visions of the night, I heard a voice saying, Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?