Beginning
Job’s Final Defense
29 Moreover Job continued his discourse:
2 “Oh, that I were as in months past,
as in the days when God watched over me;
3 when His lamp shone upon my head,
and when by His light I walked through darkness;
4 as I was in the days of my autumn youth,
when the friendly counsel of God was over my tent;
5 when the Almighty was still with me,
when my children were around me;
6 when my steps were bathed in butter,
and the rock poured out rivers of oil for me!
7 “When I went out to the gate of the city,
when I took my seat in the square,
8 the young men saw me and hid themselves,
and the aged arose and stood up.
9 The princes refrained from talking,
and put their hand on their mouth.
10 The nobles held their peace,
and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
11 When the ear heard, then it blessed me;
and when the eye saw, then it approved me,
12 because I delivered the poor who cried,
and the fatherless, and him who had none to help him.
13 The blessing of the perishing man came upon me,
and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;
my judgment was like a robe and a diadem.
15 I was eyes for the blind,
and I was feet for the lame.
16 I was a father to the poor,
and I searched out the case that I did not know.
17 I broke the jaws of the wicked
and plucked the victim from his teeth.
18 “Then I said, ‘I will die in my nest,
and I will multiply my days as the sand.
19 My root was spread out by the waters,
and the dew lay all night upon my branch.
20 My glory was fresh in me,
and my bow was renewed in my hand.’
21 “Men listened to me and waited,
and kept silence for my counsel.
22 After my words they did not speak again,
and my speech settled on them like dew.
23 They waited for me as for the rain,
and they opened their mouth wide as for the spring rain.
24 If I mocked at them, they did not believe it,
and the light of my countenance they did not cast down.
25 I chose the way for them and sat as chief,
and lived as a king in the army,
as one who comforts mourners.
30 “But now those who are younger than I mock me,
whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock.
2 Yes, how does the strength of their hands profit me?
Their vigor has perished.
3 For want and famine
they gnawed the parched land;
fleeing into the wilderness in former time, desolate and waste.
4 Who pluck mallow by the bushes,
and juniper roots for their food.
5 They were driven out from among men;
they shout after them as after a thief.
6 They had to dwell in the rocky riverbeds,
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, yes, children of vile men;
they were scourged from the earth.
9 “Now I am their taunting song;
yes, I am their byword.
10 They abhor me, they flee far from me;
they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
11 Because He has loosed my bowstring and afflicted me,
they have cast off the bridle before me.
12 At my right hand their brood arises;
they push away my feet,
and they raise against me their ways of destruction.
13 They tear apart my path,
they promote my calamity;
they have no helper.
14 They came upon me as a wide breach, with a crash they came;
in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.
15 Terrors are turned on me;
they pursue my dignity like the wind,
and my help passes away as a cloud.
16 “Now my soul is poured out within me;
the days of affliction have taken hold of me.
17 My bones are pierced in me at night,
and my sinews have 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 You, but You do not hear me;
I stand up, and You do not regard me.
21 You have become cruel to me;
with Your strong hand You oppose me.
22 You lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride on it;
You dissolve my success.
23 For I know that You will bring me to death,
and to the house appointed for all living.
24 “Surely He will not stretch out His hand to the grave,
though they cry when He destroys it.
25 Did I not weep for him who was in trouble?
Was not my soul grieved for the poor?
26 When I looked for good, then evil disaster came upon me;
and when I waited for light, darkness came.
27 My insides boiled and did not rest;
the days of affliction have met me.
28 I went mourning without the sun;
I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.
29 I am a brother of jackals
and a companion of owls.
30 My skin is black upon me,
and my bones are burned with fever.
31 My harp is turned to mourning,
and my flute to the voice of those who weep.
31 “I made a covenant with my eyes;
why then should I look upon a young woman?
2 For what portion of God is there from above?
And what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?
3 Does not destruction belong to the wicked,
and calamity to the workers of iniquity?
4 Does He not see my ways,
and count all my steps?
5 “If I have walked in vanity,
or if my foot has hurried after deceit,
6 let me be weighed in an even balance
that God may know my integrity.
7 If my step has turned out of the path,
and my heart has gone after my eyes,
and if any spot has clung to my hands,
8 then let me sow, but let another eat;
yes, let my offspring be rooted out.
9 “If my heart has been deceived by a woman,
or if I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door,
10 then let my wife grind for another,
and let others bow down over her.
11 For this is a heinous crime;
yes, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.
12 For it is a fire that consumes to destruction
and would root out all my increase.
13 “If I have despised the cause of my male or female servant
when they complained against me,
14 what then will I do when God rises up?
And when He visits, what will I answer Him?
15 Did not He who made me in the womb make him?
And did not the same One fashion us in the womb?
16 “If I have kept the poor from their desire,
or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
17 or have eaten my morsel by myself,
so that the fatherless could not eat of it
18 (but from my youth he 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 anyone perish for lack of clothing,
or any poor without covering;
20 if his body has not blessed me,
and if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;
21 if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless,
when I saw I had help in the gate;
22 then let my arm fall from my shoulder blade,
and my arm be broken from the bone.
23 For destruction from God is a terror to me,
and because of His highness I cannot endure.
24 “If I have made gold my hope,
or have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence’;
25 if I rejoiced because my wealth was great,
and because my hand had gained much;
26 if I saw the sun when it shined,
or the moon moving in brightness;
27 and my heart has been secretly enticed,
or my mouth has kissed my hand;
28 this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judge,
for I would have denied the God who is above.
29 “If I rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me,
or lifted up myself when disaster found him
30 (nor have I allowed my mouth to sin
by wishing for a curse on his soul);
31 if the men of my tent have not said,
‘Who is there who has not been satisfied with his meat?’
32 (the stranger has not lodged in the street,
but I opened my doors to the traveler);
33 if I covered my transgressions as any man,
by hiding my iniquity in my heart,
34 did I fear a great multitude,
or did the contempt of families terrify me,
so that I kept silence, and did not go out of the door?
35 “Oh, that one would hear me!
Behold, my desire is that the Almighty would answer me,
and that the One who contends against me had written a book!
36 Surely I would carry it on my shoulder
and bind it on me like a crown.
37 I would declare to Him the number of my steps;
like a prince I would approach Him.
38 “If my land cries out against me,
and its furrows also weep together;
39 if I have eaten its fruit without money,
or have caused its owners to lose their life;
40 let thistles grow instead of wheat,
and weeds instead of barley.”
The words of Job are ended.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.