Job 29-30

Job 29

¹Job again took up his parable, and said,

²“Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me;

³when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I walked through darkness,

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

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

⁶when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out streams of oil for me,

⁷when I went out to the city gate, when I prepared my seat in the street.

⁸The young men saw me and hid themselves. The aged rose up and stood.

⁹The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.

¹⁰The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.

¹¹For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me, it commended me,

¹²because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him,

¹³the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem.

¹⁵I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the needy. I researched the cause of him whom I didn’t know.

¹⁷I broke the jaws of the unrighteous and plucked the prey out of his teeth.

¹⁸Then I said, ‘I will die in my own house, I will count my days as the sand.

¹⁹My root is spread out to the waters. The dew lies all night on my branch.

²⁰My glory is fresh in me. My bow is renewed in my hand.’

²¹“Men listened to me, waited, and kept silence for my counsel.

²²After my words they didn’t speak again. My speech fell on them.

²³They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.

²⁴I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn’t reject the light of my face.

²⁵I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, as one who comforts the mourners.

Job 30

¹“But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I considered unworthy to put with my sheep dogs.

²Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished?

³They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.

⁴They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom tree are their food.

⁵They are driven out from among men. They cry after them as after a thief,

⁶so that they live in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

⁷They bray among the bushes. They are gathered together under the nettles.

⁸They are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men. They were flogged out of the land.

⁹“Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.

¹⁰They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don’t hesitate to spit in my face.

¹¹For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have thrown off restraint before me.

¹²On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet. They cast their ways of destruction up against me.

¹³They mar my path. They promote my destruction without anyone’s help.

¹⁴As through a wide breach they come. They roll themselves in amid the ruin.

¹⁵Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud.

¹⁶“Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold of me.

¹⁷In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.

¹⁸My garment is disfigured by great force. It binds me about as the collar of my tunic.

¹⁹He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me.

²¹You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me.

²²You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm.

²³For I know that you will bring me to death, to the house appointed for all living.

²⁴“However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?

²⁵Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy?

²⁶When I looked for good, then evil came. When I waited for light, darkness came.

²⁷My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest. Days of affliction have come on me.

²⁸I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.

²⁹I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.

³⁰My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.

³¹Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.