A reading from the book of Job.

My spirit is broken. My days are extinct. The graveyard is ready for me. Surely there are

mockers about me, and my eye dwells on their provocation. Lay down a pledge for me with you.

Who is there who will put up security for me? Since you have

closed their hearts to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph. He who informs

against his friends to get a share of their property, the eyes of his children will fail.

He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom men spit.

My eye has grown dim from vexation, and all my members are like a shadow.

The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless, yet the righteous

holds to his way, and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.

But you, come on again, all of you, and I shall not find a wise man among you.

My days are past. My plans are broken off, the desires of my heart.

They make night into day. The light, they say, is near to the darkness. If I hope for Sha'ol as my

house, if I make my bed in darkness, if I say to the pit, You are my father, and to the worm,

My mother or my sister, Where then is my hope?

Who will see my hope?

Will it go down to the bars of Sha'ol?

Shall we descend together into the dust? Then Bildad the Shuhait answered and said,

How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and then we will speak. Why are we counted as cattle?

Why are we stupid in your sight? You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you,

or the rock be removed out of its place? Indeed, the light of the wicked is put out,

and the flame of his fire does not shine. The light is dark in his tent, and his lamp above him

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