Job 29-31

Job 29

¹And Job continued his discourse:

²“How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me,

³when His lamp shone above my head, and by His light I walked through the darkness,

⁴when I was in my prime, when the friendship of God rested on my tent,

⁵when the Almighty was still with me and my children were around me,

⁶when my steps were bathed in cream and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!

⁷When I went out to the city gate and took my seat in the public square,

⁸the young men saw me and withdrew, and the old men rose to their feet.

⁹The princes refrained from speaking and covered their mouths with their hands.

¹⁰The voices of the nobles were hushed, and their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.

¹¹For those who heard me called me blessed, and those who saw me commended me,

¹²because I rescued the poor who cried out and the fatherless who had no helper.

¹³The dying man blessed me, and I made the widow’s heart sing for joy.

¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; justice was my robe and my turban.

¹⁵I served as eyes to the blind and as feet to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the needy, and I took up the case of the stranger.

¹⁷I shattered the fangs of the unjust and snatched the prey from his teeth.

¹⁸So I thought: ‘I will die in my nest and multiply my days as the sand.

¹⁹My roots will spread out to the waters, and the dew will rest nightly on my branches.

²⁰My glory is ever new within me, and my bow is renewed in my hand.’

²¹Men listened to me with expectation, waiting silently for my counsel.

²²After my words, they spoke no more; my speech settled on them like dew.

²³They waited for me as for rain and drank in my words like spring showers.

²⁴If I smiled at them, they did not believe it; the light of my countenance was precious.

²⁵I chose their course and presided as chief. So I dwelt as a king among his troops, as a comforter of the mourners.

Job 30

¹“But now they mock me, men younger than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to entrust with my sheep dogs.

²What use to me was the strength of their hands, since their vigor had left them?

³Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.

⁴They plucked mallow among the shrubs, and the roots of the broom tree were their food.

⁵They were banished from among men, shouted down like thieves,

⁶so that they lived on the slopes of the wadis, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.

⁷They cried out among the shrubs and huddled beneath the nettles.

⁸A senseless and nameless brood, they were driven off the land.

⁹And now they mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.

¹⁰They abhor me and keep far from me; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

¹¹Because God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they have cast off restraint in my presence.

¹²The rabble arises at my right; they lay snares for my feet and build siege ramps against me.

¹³They tear up my path; they profit from my destruction, with no one to restrain them.

¹⁴They advance as through a wide breach; through the ruins they keep rolling in.

¹⁵Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.

¹⁶And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction grip me.

¹⁷Night pierces my bones, and my gnawing pains never rest.

¹⁸With great force He grasps my garment; He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.

¹⁹He throws me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.

²¹You have ruthlessly turned on me; You oppose me with Your strong hand.

²²You snatch me up into the wind and drive me before it; You toss me about in the storm.

²³Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.

²⁴Yet no one stretches out his hand to a ruined man when he cries for help in his distress.

²⁵Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has my soul not grieved for the needy?

²⁶But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.

²⁷I am churning within and cannot rest; days of affliction confront me.

²⁸I go about blackened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

²⁹I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches.

³⁰My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.

³¹My harp is tuned to mourning and my flute to the sound of weeping.

Job 31

¹“I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?

²For what is the allotment of God from above, or the heritage from the Almighty on high?

³Does not disaster come to the unjust and calamity to the workers of iniquity?

⁴Does He not see my ways and count my every step?

⁵If I have walked in falsehood or my foot has rushed to deceit,

⁶let God weigh me with honest scales, that He may know my integrity.

⁷If my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has followed my eyes, or if impurity has stuck to my hands,

⁸then may another eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.

⁹If my heart has been enticed by my neighbor’s wife, or I have lurked at his door,

¹⁰then may my own wife grind grain for another, and may other men sleep with her.

¹¹For that would be a heinous crime, an iniquity to be judged.

¹²For it is a fire that burns down to Abaddon; it would root out my entire harvest.

¹³If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or maidservant when they made a complaint against me,

¹⁴what will I do when God rises to judge? How will I answer when called to account?

¹⁵Did not He who made me in the womb also make them? Did not the same One form us in the womb?

¹⁶If I have denied the desires of the poor or allowed the widow’s eyes to fail,

¹⁷if I have eaten my morsel alone, not sharing it with the fatherless—

¹⁸though from my youth I reared him as would a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow—

¹⁹if I have seen one perish for lack of clothing, or a needy man without a cloak,

²⁰if his heart has not blessed me for warming him with the fleece of my sheep,

²¹if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless because I saw that I had support in the gate,

²²then may my arm fall from my shoulder and be torn from its socket.

²³For calamity from God terrifies me, and His splendor I cannot overpower.

²⁴If I have put my trust in gold or called pure gold my security,

²⁵if I have rejoiced in my great wealth because my hand had gained so much,

²⁶if I have beheld the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor,

²⁷so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,

²⁸this would also be an iniquity to be judged, for I would have denied God on high.

²⁹If I have rejoiced in my enemy’s ruin, or exulted when evil befell him—

³⁰I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking for his life with a curse—

³¹if the men of my house have not said, ‘Who is there who has not had his fill?’—

³²but no stranger had to lodge on the street, for my door has been open to the traveler—

³³if I have covered my transgressions like Adam by hiding my guilt in my heart,

³⁴because I greatly feared the crowds and the contempt of the clans terrified me, so that I kept silent and would not go outside—

³⁵(Oh, that I had one to hear me! Here is my signature. Let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser compose an indictment.

³⁶Surely I would carry it on my shoulder and wear it like a crown.

³⁷I would give account of all my steps; I would approach Him like a prince.)—

³⁸if my land cries out against me and its furrows weep together,

³⁹if I have devoured its produce without payment or broken the spirit of its tenants,

⁴⁰then let briers grow instead of wheat and stinkweed instead of barley.” Thus conclude the words of Job.