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29 ¶ Moreover, Job continued his parable and said,
2 Oh, that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;
3 when his lamp shone upon my head, and by its light I walked in the darkness;
4 as I was in the days of my youth, when God was familiar in my tent;
5 when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;
6 when I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil!
7 ¶ When I went out to the gate to judgment, when I had my seat prepared in the plaza!
8 The young men would see me and hide themselves, and the aged would arise and stand.
9 The princes would refrain from talking and lay their hand on their mouth;
10 the voice of the principals would not be noticed, and their tongue would cleave to the roof of their mouth.
11 When the ears that heard me, called me blessed; and when the eyes that saw me, gave witness to me:
12 because I delivered the poor that cried and the fatherless who had no one to help him.
13 The blessing of the one that was ready to perish came upon me; and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me as a robe; and my diadem was judgment.
15 I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.
16 I was a father to the needy; and the cause which I did not know I searched out.
17 And I broke the fangs of the wicked and caused their teeth to release the prey.
18 ¶ Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.
19 My root is spread out by the waters, and the dew shall remain upon my branches.
20 My glory is renewed with me, and my bow is renewed in my hand.
21 They would hear me and wait, and keep silent at my counsel.
22 After my words they would not reply, but my reason dropped upon them.
23 And they waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.
24 If I laughed at them, they did not believe it; and they did not cast down the light of my countenance.
25 I approved their way and sat at the head and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforts the mourners.
30 ¶ But now those 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 For, unto what might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom time was lost?
3 For want and famine they walked alone; fleeing into solitude, to the dark place, desolate and waste.
4 Who cut up mallows among the bushes and juniper roots for their food.
5 They were driven forth from among men (they cried after them as after a thief).
6 They dwelt in the clifts 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 sons of fools and men without names; they were lower than the earth.
9 And now I am their song, and I am their byword.
10 They abhor me, they distance themselves from me, and do not spare to spit in my face.
11 Because God has loosed my cord and afflicted me, they have also gone out of control before my face.
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 cast down my path, they took advantage of my calamity, against them there was no helper.
14 They came in as through a wide breach; they were stirred up because of my calamity.
15 ¶ They have loosed terrors upon me; they fought my will as the wind and my saving health as a cloud that passes.
16 And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
17 My bones pierce me in the night, and my sinews take no rest.
18 By the great force of my disease my garment is changed; it binds me about as the collar of my coat.
19 He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.
20 I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me; I present myself, and thou regardest me not.
21 Thou art become cruel to me; with the strength of thy hand thou dost hate me.
22 Thou didst lift me up and cause me to ride upon the wind, and didst dissolve my being.
23 For I know that thou dost conduct me unto death and to the house appointed for all living.
24 But he will not stretch out his hand against the grave; do those who are buried cry out when he destroys them?
25 Did I not weep for the one that was in trouble? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
26 When I expected good, then evil came unto me; and when I waited for light, there came darkness.
27 My bowels boil and do not rest; the days of affliction came upon me.
28 I went about darkened, but not by the sun; I stood up and cried out in the congregation.
29 I have become 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 is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of those that weep.
31 ¶ I made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I look upon a maid?
2 For what reward would God give me from above and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?
3 Is there no destruction for the wicked? And banishment for the workers of iniquity?
4 Does he not see my ways and count all my steps?
5 If I have walked with falsehood or if my foot has hastened to deceit,
6 let me be weighed in a just balance, that God may know my integrity.
7 If my step has turned out of the way and my heart walked after my eyes and if any blot has cleaved to my hands,
8 then let me sow, and let another eat, and let my offspring be rooted out.
9 ¶ If my heart has been deceived regarding a woman, or if I have laid in wait at my neighbour’s door,
10 then let my wife grind for another, and let others bow down upon her.
11 For this is lewdness and iniquity that is proven.
12 For it is a fire that consumes unto hell and would root out all my increase.
13 If I had despised the right of my manslave or of my maidslave, when they contended with me;
14 what then would I do when God rises up? And when he visits, what would I answer him?
15 Did not he that made me in the belly also make him? And did not the same one fashion us in the womb?
16 ¶ If I have disturbed the desire of the poor or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;
17 or have eaten my morsel alone and the fatherless has not eaten thereof;
18 (for from my youth the fatherless was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided the widow from my mother’s womb)
19 if I have seen any perish for want of clothing or any needy without a 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, even when I saw that they would all help me in the gate;
22 then let my back fall from my shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from its joint.
23 For I feared destruction from God, against whose highness I could have no power.
24 ¶ If I have made gold my hope or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;
25 if I rejoiced because my wealth was being multiplied, and because my hand had gotten much;
26 if I beheld the sun when it shone or the moon walking in beauty;
27 and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my mouth kissed my hand;
28 this would also be a proven iniquity; for I should have denied the God that is sovereign.
29 If I rejoiced at the destruction of the one that hated me or lifted up myself when evil found him;
30 for I have never even suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse upon his soul;
31 when the servants of my tent said, Oh that we had of his flesh! We would never 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 my iniquity in my bosom;
34 if I feared a great multitude or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and did not go out of the door?
35 Oh that someone would hear me! Behold, my mark is, that the Almighty will testify for me, even though my adversary had written down the charges.
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 I would go near unto him.
38 If my land cries against me and all its furrows likewise complain;
39 if I ate of its strength without money or have afflicted the soul of its owners;
40 let thistles grow up unto me instead of wheat and stinkweed instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.
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