Job 29-31 (Darby Translation)

Job 29

 ¹And Job continued his parable and said,

 ²Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when +God preserved me;

 ³When his lamp shone over my head, [and] by his light I walked through darkness;

 ⁴As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret counsel of +God was over my tent,

 ⁵When the Almighty was yet with me, my young men round about me;

 ⁶When my steps were bathed in milk, and the rock poured out beside me rivers of oil! ...

 ⁷When I went out to the gate by the city, when I prepared my seat on the broadway,

 ⁸The young men saw me, and hid themselves; and the aged arose [and] stood up;

 ⁹Princes refrained from talking, and laid the hand on their mouth;

 ¹⁰The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue cleaved to their palate.

 ¹¹When the ear heard [me], then it blessed me, and when the eye saw [me], it gave witness to me;

 ¹²For I delivered the afflicted that cried, and the fatherless who had no helper.

 ¹³The blessing of him that was perishing came upon 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 mantle and a turban.

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

 ¹⁶I was a father to the needy, and the cause which I knew not I searched out;

 ¹⁷And I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.

 ¹⁸And I said, I shall die in my nest, and multiply my days as the sand;

 ¹⁹My root shall be spread out to the waters, and the dew will lie all night on my branch;

 ²⁰My glory shall be fresh in me, and my bow be renewed in my hand.

 ²¹Unto me they listened, and waited, and kept silence for my counsel:

 ²²After my words they spoke not again, and my speech dropped upon them;

 ²³And they waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.

 ²⁴[If] I laughed on them, they believed [it] not; and they troubled not the serenity of my countenance.

 ²⁵I chose their way, and sat as chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth mourners.

Job 30

 ¹But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.

 ²Yea, whereto [should] the strength of their hands [profit] me, [men] in whom vigour hath perished?

 ³Withered up through want and hunger, they flee into waste places long since desolate and desert:

 ⁴They gather the salt-wort among the bushes, and the roots of the broom for their food.

 ⁵They are driven forth from among [men] -- they cry after them as after a thief --

 ⁶To dwell in gloomy gorges, in caves of the earth and the rocks:

 ⁷They bray among the bushes; under the brambles they are gathered together:

 ⁸Sons of fools, and sons of nameless sires, they are driven out of the land.

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

 ¹⁰They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, yea, they spare not to spit in my face.

 ¹¹For he hath loosed my cord and afflicted me; so they cast off the bridle before me.

 ¹²At [my] right hand rise the young brood; they push away my feet, and raise up against me their pernicious ways;

 ¹³They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, without any to help them;

 ¹⁴They come in as through a wide breach: amid the confusion they roll themselves onward.

 ¹⁵Terrors are turned against me; they pursue mine honour as the wind; and my welfare is passed away like a cloud.

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

 ¹⁷The night pierceth through my bones [and detacheth them] from me, and my gnawing pains take no rest:

 ¹⁸By their great force they have become my raiment; they bind me about as the collar of my coat.

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

 ²⁰I cry unto thee, and thou answerest me not; I stand up, and thou lookest at me.

 ²¹Thou art changed to a cruel one to me; with the strength of thy hand thou pursuest me.

 ²²Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to be borne away, and dissolvest my substance.

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

 ²⁴Indeed, no prayer [availeth] when he stretcheth out [his] hand: though they cry when he destroyeth.

 ²⁵Did not I weep for him whose days were hard? was not my soul grieved for the needy?

 ²⁶For I expected good, and there came evil; and I waited for light, but there came darkness.

 ²⁷My bowels well up, and rest not; days of affliction have confronted me.

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

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

 ³⁰My skin is become black [and falleth] off me, and my bones are parched with heat.

 ³¹My harp also is [turned] to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of weepers.

Job 31

 ¹I made a covenant with mine eyes; and how should I fix my regard upon a maid?

 ²For what would have been [my] portion of +God from above, and what the heritage of the Almighty from on high?

 ³Is not calamity for the unrighteous? and misfortune for the workers of iniquity?

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

 ⁵If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot hath hasted to deceit,

 ⁶(Let me be weighed in an even balance, and +God will take knowledge of my blamelessness;)

 ⁷If my step have turned out of the way, and my heart followed mine eyes, and if any blot cleaveth to my hands;

 ⁸Let me sow, and another eat; and let mine offspring be rooted out.

 ⁹If my heart have been enticed unto a woman, so that I laid wait at my neighbour's door,

 ¹⁰Let my wife grind for another, and let others bow down upon her.

 ¹¹For this is an infamy; yea, it is an iniquity [to be judged by] the judges:

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

 ¹³If I have despised the cause of my bondman or of my bondmaid, when they contended with me,

 ¹⁴What then should I do when ùGod riseth up? and if he visited, what should I answer him?

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

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

 ¹⁷Or have eaten my morsel alone, so that the fatherless ate not thereof,

 ¹⁸(For from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, and I have guided the [widow] from my mother's womb;)

 ¹⁹If I have seen any perishing for want of clothing, or any needy without covering;

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

 ²¹If I have lifted up my hand against an orphan, because I saw my help in the gate:

 ²²[Then] let my shoulder fall from the shoulder-blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone!

 ²³For calamity from ùGod was a terror to me, and by reason of his excellency I was powerless.

 ²⁴If I have made gold my hope, or said to the fine gold, My confidence!

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

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

 ²⁷And my heart have been secretly enticed, so that my mouth kissed my hand:

 ²⁸This also would be an iniquity for the judge, for I should have denied the ùGod who is above.

 ²⁹If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, and exulted when evil befell him;

 ³⁰(Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse;)

 ³¹If the men of my tent said not, Who shall find one that hath not been satisfied with his meat? --

 ³²The stranger did not lodge without; I opened my doors to the pathway.

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

 ³⁴Because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and went not out of the door, ...

 ³⁵Oh that I had one to hear me! Behold my signature: let the Almighty answer me! And let mine opponent write an accusation!

 ³⁶Would I not take it upon my shoulder? I would bind it on to me [as] a crown;

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

 ³⁸If my land cry out against me, and its furrows weep together;

 ³⁹If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, and have tormented to death the souls of its owners:

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