Job 29-31 (Amplified Bible)

Job 29

 ¹AND JOB again took up his discussion and said,

    ²Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me,^(A)

    ³When His lamp shone above and upon my head and by His light I walked through darkness;

    ⁴As I was in the [prime] ripeness of my days, when the friendship and counsel of God were over my tent,

    ⁵When the Almighty was yet with me and my children were about me,

    ⁶When my steps [through rich pasturage] were washed with butter and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!

    ⁷When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the street [the broad place for the council at the city's gate],

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

    ⁹The princes refrained from talking and laid their hands on their mouths;

    ¹⁰The voices of the nobles were hushed, and their tongues cleaved to the roof of their mouths.

    ¹¹For when the ear heard, it called me happy and blessed me; and when the eye saw, it testified for me [approvingly],

    ¹²Because I delivered the poor who cried, the fatherless and him who had none to help him.

    ¹³The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

    ¹⁴I put on ^[a]righteousness, and it clothed me or clothed itself with me; my justice was like a robe and a turban or a diadem or a crown!

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

    ¹⁶I was a father to the poor and needy; the cause of him I did not know I searched out.

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

    ¹⁸Then I said, I shall die in or beside my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.

    ¹⁹My root is spread out and open to the waters, and the dew lies all night upon my branch.

    ²⁰My glory and honor are fresh in me [being constantly renewed], and my bow gains [ever] new strength in my hand.

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

    ²²After I spoke, they did not speak again, and my speech dropped upon them [like a refreshing shower].

    ²³And they waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouths wide as for the spring rain.

    ²⁴I smiled on them when they had no confidence, and their depression did not cast down the light of my countenance.

    ²⁵I chose their way [for them] and sat as [their] chief, and dwelt like a king among his soldiers, like one who comforts mourners.

   

Job 30

 ¹BUT NOW they who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.

    ²Yes, how could the strength of their hands profit me? They were men whose ripe age and vigor had perished.

    ³They are gaunt with want and famine; they gnaw the dry and barren ground or flee into the wilderness, into the gloom of wasteness and desolation.

    ⁴They pluck saltwort or mallows among the bushes, and roots of the broom for their food or to warm them.

    ⁵They are driven from among men, who shout after them as after a thief.

    ⁶They must dwell in the clefts of frightful valleys (gullies made by torrents) and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

    ⁷Among the bushes they bray and howl [like wild animals]; beneath the prickly scrub they fling themselves and huddle together.

    ⁸Sons of the worthless and nameless, they have been scourged and crushed out of the land.

    ⁹And now I have become their song; yes, I am a byword to them.

    ¹⁰They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and do not refrain from spitting in my face or at the sight of me.

    ¹¹For God has loosed my bowstring and afflicted and humbled me; they have cast off the bridle [of restraint] before me.

    ¹²On my right hand rises the rabble brood; they jostle me and push away my feet, and they cast up against me their ways of destruction [like an advancing army].

    ¹³They break up and clutter my path [embarrassing my plans]; they urge on my calamity, even though they have no helper [and are themselves helpless].

    ¹⁴As through a wide breach they come in; amid the crash [of falling walls] they roll themselves upon me.

    ¹⁵Terrors are turned upon me; my honor and reputation they chase away like the wind, and my welfare has passed away as a cloud.

    ¹⁶And now my life is poured out within me; the days of affliction have gripped me.

    ¹⁷My bones are pierced [with aching] in the night season, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.

    ¹⁸By the great force [of my disease] my garment is disguised and disfigured; it binds me about like the collar of my coat.

    ¹⁹[God] has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.

    ²⁰I cry to You, [Lord,] and You do not answer me; I stand up, but You [only] gaze [indifferently] at me.

    ²¹You have become harsh and cruel to me; with the might of Your hand You [keep me alive only to] persecute me.

    ²²You lift me up on the wind; You cause me to ride upon it, and You toss me about in the tempest.

    ²³For I know that You will bring me to death and to the house [of meeting] appointed for all the living.

    ²⁴However, does not one falling in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand? Or in his calamity will he not therefore cry for help?

    ²⁵Did not I weep for him who was in trouble? Was not my heart grieved for the poor and needy?

    ²⁶But when I looked for good, then evil came to me; and when I waited for light, there came darkness.

    ²⁷My heart is troubled and does not rest; days of affliction come to meet me.

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

    ²⁹I am a brother to jackals [which howl], and a companion to ostriches [which scream dismally].

    ³⁰My skin falls from me in blackened flakes, and my bones are burned with heat.

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

   

Job 31

 ¹I DICTATED a covenant (an agreement) to my eyes; how then could I look [lustfully] upon a girl?

    ²For what portion should I have from God above [if I were lewd], and what heritage from the Almighty on high?

    ³Does not calamity [justly] befall the unrighteous, and disaster the workers of iniquity?

    ⁴Does not [God] see my ways and count all my steps?

    ⁵If I have walked with falsehood or vanity, or if my foot has hastened to deceit--

    ⁶Oh, let me be weighed in a just balance and let Him weigh me, that God may know my integrity!

    ⁷If my step has turned out of [God's] way, and my heart has gone the way my eyes [covetously] invited, and if any spot has stained my hands with guilt,

    ⁸Then let me sow and let another eat; yes, let the produce of my field or my offspring be rooted out.

    ⁹If my heart has been deceived and I made a fool by a woman, or if I have [covetously] laid wait at my neighbor's door [until his departure],

    ¹⁰Then let my wife grind [meal, like a bondslave] for another, and let others bow down upon her.

    ¹¹For [adultery] is a heinous and chief crime, an iniquity [to demand action by] the judges and punishment.^(B)

    ¹²For [uncontrolled passion] is a fire which consumes to Abaddon (to destruction, ruin, and the place of final torment); [that fire once lighted would rage until all is consumed] and would burn to the root all my [life's] increase.

    ¹³If I have despised and rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant when they contended or brought a complaint against me,

    ¹⁴What then shall I do when God rises up [to judge]? When He visits [to inquire of me], what shall I answer Him?^(C)

    ¹⁵Did not He Who made me in the womb make [my servant]? And did not One fashion us both in the womb?^(D)

    ¹⁶If I have withheld from the poor and needy what they desired, or have caused the eyes of the widow to look in vain [for relief],

    ¹⁷Or have eaten my morsel alone and have not shared it with the fatherless--

    ¹⁸No, but from my youth [the fatherless] grew up with me as a father, and I have been [the widow's] guide from my mother's womb--

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

    ²⁰If his loins have not blessed me [for clothing them], and if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep,

    ²¹If I have lifted my hand against the fatherless when I saw [that the judges would be favorable and be] my help at the [council] gate,

    ²²Then let my shoulder fall away from my shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from its socket.

    ²³For calamity from God was a terror to me, and because of His majesty I could not endure [to face Him] and could do nothing.^(E)

    ²⁴If I have made gold my trust and hope or have said to fine gold, You are my confidence,

    ²⁵If I rejoiced because my wealth was great and because my [powerful] hand [alone] had gotten much,

    ²⁶If I beheld [as an object of worship] the sunlight when it shone or the moon walking in its brightness,

    ²⁷And my heart has been secretly enticed by them or my mouth has kissed my hand [in homage to them],

    ²⁸This also would have been [a heinous and principal] iniquity to demand the judges' action and punishment, for I would have denied and been false to the God Who is above.^(F)

    ²⁹If I rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me or lifted myself up [in malicious triumph] when evil overtook him--

    ³⁰No, I have let my mouth sin neither by cursing my enemy nor by praying that he might die--

    ³¹[Just ask] if the men of my tent will not say, Who can find one in need who has not been satisfied with food he gave them?--

    ³²The temporary resident has not lodged in the street, but I have opened my door to the wayfaring man--

    ³³If like Adam or like [other] men I have concealed my transgressions, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom

    ³⁴Because I feared the great multitude and the contempt of families terrified me so that I kept silence and did not go out of the door--

    ³⁵Oh, for a hearing! Oh, for an answer from the Almighty! Let my adversary write out His indictment [and put His vague accusations in tangible form] in a book!

    ³⁶Surely I would [proudly] bear it on my shoulder and wind the scroll about my head as a diadem.

    ³⁷I would count out to Him the number of my steps [with every detail of my life], approaching His presence as a prince--

    ³⁸For if my land has cried out against me and its furrows have complained together with tears [that I have no right to them],

    ³⁹If I have eaten its fruits without paying for them or have caused its [rightful] owners to breathe their last,

    ⁴⁰Let thistles grow instead of wheat and cockleburs instead of barley. The [controversial] words of Job [with his friends] are ended.