Job 29-31

Job 29

¹And Job again took up his parable, and said,

²Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me;

³When his lamp shined upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness;

⁴As I was in the ripeness of my days, when the secret of God was upon my tent;

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

⁶When my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil!

⁷When I went forth to the gate unto the city, when I prepared my seat in the street,

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

⁹The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth;

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

¹¹For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness unto me:

¹²Because I delivered the poor that cried, the fatherless also, that had none to help him.

¹³The blessing of him that was ready to perish 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 robe and a diadem.

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

¹⁶I was a father to the needy: and the cause of him that I knew not I searched out.

¹⁷And I brake the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucked the prey out of his teeth.

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

¹⁹My root is spread out to the waters, and the dew lieth all night upon my branch:

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

²¹Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence for my counsel.

²²After my words they spake 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.

²⁴If I laughed on them, they believed it not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down.

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

Job 30

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

²Yea, the strength of their hands, whereto should it profit me? men in whom ripe age is perished.

³They are gaunt with want and famine; they gnaw the dry ground; in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.

⁴They pluck salt-wort by the bushes; and the roots of the broom are their meat.

⁵They are driven forth from the midst of men; they cry after them as after a thief.

⁶In the clefts of the valleys must they dwell, in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

⁷Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they are gathered together.

⁸They are children of fools, yea, children of base men; they were scourged out of the land.

⁹And now I am become their song, yea, I am a byword unto them.

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

¹¹For he hath loosed his cord, and afflicted me, and they have cast off the bridle before me.

¹²Upon my right hand rise the rabble; they thrust aside my feet, and they cast up against me their ways of destruction.

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

¹⁴As through a wide breach they come: in the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me.

¹⁵Terrors are turned upon me, they chase mine honour as the wind; and my welfare is passed away as a cloud.

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

¹⁷In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.

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

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

²⁰I cry unto thee, and thou dost not answer me: I stand up, and thou lookest at me.

²¹Thou art turned to be cruel to me: with the might of thy hand thou persecutest me.

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

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

²⁴Surely against a ruinous heap he will not put forth his hand; though it be in his destruction, one may utter a cry because of these things.

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

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

²⁷My bowels boil, and rest not; days of affliction are come upon me.

²⁸I go mourning without the sun: I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.

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

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

³¹Therefore is my harp turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of them that weep.

Job 31

¹I MADE a covenant with mine eyes; how then should I look upon a maid?

²For what is the portion of God from above, and the heritage of the Almighty from on high?

³Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity?

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

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

⁶(Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity;)

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

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

⁹If mine heart have been enticed unto a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbour’s door:

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

¹¹For that were an heinous crime; yea, it were an iniquity to be punished by the judges:

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

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

¹⁴What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall 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 have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

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

¹⁸(Nay, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, and I have been her guide from my mother’s womb;)

¹⁹If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering;

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

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

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

²³For calamity from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his excellency I could do nothing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

³⁰(Yea, I suffered not my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse;)

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

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

³³If like Adam I covered my transgressions, 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! (lo, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me;) and that I had the indictment which mine adversary hath written!

³⁶Surely I would carry it upon my shoulder; I would bind it unto me as a crown.

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

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

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

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