American Standard Version of 1901
Versliste
If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul be not filled with good, and moreover he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he:
for it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and the name thereof is covered with darkness;
moreover it hath not seen the sun {Or, neither had any knowledge}nor known it; {Or, it is better with this than with the other}this hath rest rather than the other:
yea, though he live a thousand years twice told, and yet enjoy no good, do not all go to one place?
Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! They shall not lament for him, saying Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
For the Son of man goeth, even as it is written of him: but woe unto that man through whom the Son of man is {See marginal note on chapter 3:19.}betrayed! good were it {Greek: for him if that man.}for that man if he had not been born.
Let them be as a snail which melteth and passeth away,Like the untimely birth of a woman, {Or, like them that have not seen the sun}that hath not seen the sun.
After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.
And Job answered and said:
Let the day perish wherein I was born,And the night which said, There is a man-child conceived.
Let that day be darkness;Let not God from above seek for it,Neither let the light shine upon it.
Let darkness and {Or, deep darkness (and so elsewhere)}the shadow of death claim it for their own;Let a cloud dwell upon it;Let all that maketh black the day terrify it.
As for that night, let thick darkness seize upon it:Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;Let it not come into the number of the months.
Lo, let that night be {Or, solitary}barren;Let no joyful voice come therein.
Let them curse it that curse the day,Who are {Or, skilful}ready to rouse up leviathan.
Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark:Let it look for light, but have none;Neither let it behold the eyelids of the morning:
Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb,Nor hid trouble from mine eyes.
Why died I not from the womb?Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bare me?
Why did the knees receive me?Or why the breast, that I should suck?
For now should I have lain down and been quiet;I should have slept; then had I been at rest,
With kings and counsellors of the earth,Who {Or, built solitary piles}built up waste places for themselves;
Or with princes that had gold,Who filled their houses with silver
Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been,As infants that never saw light.
There the wicked cease from {Or, raging}troubling;And there the weary are at rest.
There the prisoners are at ease together;They hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
The small and the great are there:And the servant is free from his master.
Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.
Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man-child is born unto thee; making him very glad.
And let that man be as the cities which Jehovah overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear a cry in the morning, and {Or, an alarm}shouting at noontime;
And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.
And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
but he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required: and to whom they commit much, of him will they ask the more.
For it is as when a man, going into another country, called his own {Greek: bondservants.}servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one; to each according to his several ability; and he went on his journey.
Straightway he that received the five talents went and traded with them, and made other five talents.
In like manner he also that received the two gained other two.
But he that received the one went away and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.
Now after a long time the lord of those {Greek: bondservants.}servants cometh, and maketh a reckoning with them.
And he that received the five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: lo, I have gained other five talents.
His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful {Greek: bondservant.}servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
And he also that received the two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: lo, I have gained other two talents.
His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful {Greek: bondservant.}servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
And he also that had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou didst not sow, and gathering where thou didst not scatter;
and I was afraid, and went away and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, thou hast thine own.
But his lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful {Greek: bondservant.}servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I did not scatter;
thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received back mine own with interest.
Take ye away therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him that hath the ten talents.
For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away.
And cast ye out the unprofitable {Greek: bondservant.}servant into the outer darkness: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.