Job 29-30

Job 29

¹And Job addeth to lift up his simile, and saith: --

²Who doth make me as in months past, As in the days of God's preserving me?

³In His causing His lamp to shine on my head, By His light I walk through darkness.

⁴As I have been in days of my maturity, And the counsel of God upon my tent.

⁵When yet the Mighty One is with me. Round about me -- my young ones,

⁶When washing my goings with butter, And the firm rock is with me rivulets of oil.

⁷When I go out to the gate by the city, In a broad place I prepare my seat.

⁸Seen me have youths, and they, been hidden, And the aged have risen -- they stood up.

⁹Princes have kept in words, And a hand they place on their mouth.

¹⁰The voice of leaders hath been hidden, And their tongue to the palate hath cleaved.

¹¹For the ear heard, and declareth me happy, And the eye hath seen, and testifieth to me.

¹²For I deliver the afflicted who is crying, And the fatherless who hath no helper.

¹³The blessing of the perishing cometh on me, And the heart of the widow I cause to sing.

¹⁴Righteousness I have put on, and it clotheth me, As a robe and a diadem my justice.

¹⁵Eyes I have been to the blind, And feet to the lame am I.

¹⁶A father I am to the needy, And the cause I have not known I search out.

¹⁷And I break the jaw-teeth of the perverse, And from his teeth I cast away prey.

¹⁸And I say, ‘With my nest I expire, And as the sand I multiply days.'

¹⁹My root is open unto the waters, And dew doth lodge on my branch.

²⁰My honour is fresh with me, And my bow in my hand is renewed.

²¹To me they have hearkened, Yea, they wait, and are silent for my counsel.

²²After my word they change not, And on them doth my speech drop,

²³And they wait as for rain for me, And their mouth they have opened wide As for the latter rain.

²⁴I laugh unto them -- they give no credence, And the light of my face cause not to fall.

²⁵I choose their way, and sit head, And I dwell as a king in a troop, When mourners he doth comfort.

Job 30

¹And now, laughed at me, Have the younger in days than I, Whose fathers I have loathed to set With the dogs of my flock.

²Also -- the power of their hands, why is it to me? On them hath old age perished.

³With want and with famine gloomy, Those fleeing to a dry place, Formerly a desolation and waste,

⁴Those cropping mallows near a shrub, And broom-roots is their food.

⁵From the midst they are cast out, (They shout against them as a thief),

⁶In a frightful place of valleys to dwell, Holes of earth and clefts.

⁷Among shrubs they do groan, Under nettles they are gathered together.

⁸Sons of folly -- even sons without name, They have been smitten from the land.

⁹And now, their song I have been, And I am to them for a byword.

¹⁰They have abominated me, They have kept far from me, And from before me have not spared to spit.

¹¹Because His cord He loosed and afflicteth me, And the bridle from before me, They have cast away.

¹²On the right hand doth a brood arise, My feet they have cast away, And they raise up against me, Their paths of calamity.

¹³They have broken down my path, By my calamity they profit, ‘He hath no helper.'

¹⁴As a wide breach they come, Under the desolation have rolled themselves.

¹⁵He hath turned against me terrors, It pursueth as the wind mine abundance, And as a thick cloud, Hath my safety passed away.

¹⁶And now, in me my soul poureth itself out, Seize me do days of affliction.

¹⁷At night my bone hath been pierced in me, And mine eyelids do not lie down.

¹⁸By the abundance of power, Is my clothing changed, As the mouth of my coat it doth gird me.

¹⁹Casting me into mire, And I am become like dust and ashes.

²⁰I cry unto Thee, And Thou dost not answer me, I have stood, and Thou dost consider me.

²¹Thou art turned to be fierce to me, With the strength of Thy hand, Thou oppresest me.

²²Thou dost lift me up, On the wind Thou dost cause me to ride, And Thou meltest -- Thou levellest me.

²³For I have known To death Thou dost bring me back, And to the house appointed for all living.

²⁴Surely not against the heap Doth He send forth the hand, Though in its ruin they have safety.

²⁵Did not I weep for him whose day is hard? Grieved hath my soul for the needy.

²⁶When good I expected, then cometh evil, And I wait for light, and darkness cometh.

²⁷My bowels have boiled, and have not ceased, Gone before me have days of affliction.

²⁸Mourning I have gone without the sun, I have risen, in an assembly I cry.

²⁹A brother I have been to dragons, And a companion to daughters of the ostrich.

³⁰My skin hath been black upon me, And my bone hath burned from heat,

³¹And my harp doth become mourning, And my organ the sound of weeping.