30 But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.

² Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?

³ For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.

⁴ Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.

⁵ They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;)

⁶ To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.

⁷ Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.

⁸ They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.

⁹ And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.

¹⁰ They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.

¹¹ Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me.

¹² Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.

¹³ They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper.

¹⁴ They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.

¹⁵ Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.

¹⁶ And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.

¹⁷ My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.

¹⁸ By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.

¹⁹ He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.

²⁰ I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not.

²¹ Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me.

²² Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance.

²³ For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.

²⁴ Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.

²⁵ Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?

²⁶ When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.

²⁷ My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.

²⁸ I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.

²⁹ I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.

³⁰ My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.

³¹ My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.

31 I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

² For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

³ Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?

⁴ Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?

⁵ If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;

⁶ Let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know mine integrity.

⁷ If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands;

⁸ Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.

⁹ If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door;

¹⁰ Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.

¹¹ For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.

¹² For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.

¹³ If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me;

¹⁴ What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?

¹⁵ Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?

¹⁶ If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

¹⁷ Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;

¹⁸ (For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;)

¹⁹ If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;

²⁰ If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;

²¹ If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate:

²² Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.

²³ For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.

²⁴ If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;

²⁵ If I rejoice because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much;

²⁶ If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;

²⁷ And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:

²⁸ This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.

²⁹ If I rejoice at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:

³⁰ Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.

³¹ If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.

³² The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller.

³³ If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:

³⁴ Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?

³⁵ Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book.

³⁶ Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me.

³⁷ I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.

³⁸ If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;

³⁹ If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:

⁴⁰ Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.

12 And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country.

² And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard.

³ And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty.

⁴ And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled.

⁵ And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some.

⁶ Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son.

⁷ But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours.'

⁸ And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.

⁹ What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others.

¹⁰ And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner:

¹¹ This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

¹² And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way.

¹³ And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words.

¹⁴ And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?

¹⁵ Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it.

¹⁶ And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar's.

¹⁷ And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marvelled at him.

¹⁸ Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying,

¹⁹ Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.

²⁰ Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed.

²¹ And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed: and the third likewise.

²² And the seven had her, and left no seed: last of all the woman died also.

²³ In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.

²⁴ And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?

²⁵ For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.

²⁶ And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?

²⁷ He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.

²⁸ And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

²⁹ And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

³⁰ And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

³¹ And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

³² And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:

³³ And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

³⁴ And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.

³⁵ And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the son of David?

³⁶ For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.

³⁷ David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly.

³⁸ And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces,

³⁹ And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts:

⁴⁰ Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation.

⁴¹ And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.

⁴² And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.

⁴³ And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:

⁴⁴ For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.