Job 27–31

Job 27–31 WEB

^27:1Job again took up his parable, and said, ²“As God lives, who has taken away my right, the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter ³(for the length of my life is still in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils); ⁴surely my lips will not speak unrighteousness, neither will my tongue utter deceit. ⁵Far be it from me that I should justify you. Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me. ⁶I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My heart will not reproach me so long as I live. ⁷“Let my enemy be as the wicked. Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous. ⁸For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life? ⁹Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him? ¹⁰Will he delight himself in the Almighty, and call on God at all times? ¹¹I will teach you about the hand of God. I will not conceal that which is with the Almighty. ¹²Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain? ¹³“This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty. ¹⁴If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring will not be satisfied with bread. ¹⁵Those who remain of him will be buried in death. His widows will make no lamentation. ¹⁶Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay; ¹⁷he may prepare it, but the just will put it on, and the innocent will divide the silver. ¹⁸He builds his house as the moth, as a booth which the watchman makes. ¹⁹He lies down rich, but he will not do so again. He opens his eyes, and he is not. ²⁰Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in the night. ²¹The east wind carries him away, and he departs. It sweeps him out of his place. ²²For it hurls at him, and does not spare, as he flees away from his hand. ²³Men will clap their hands at him, and will hiss him out of his place.

^28:1“Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold which they refine. ²Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted out of the ore. ³Man sets an end to darkness, and searches out, to the furthest bound, the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness. ⁴He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth. ⁵As for the earth, out of it comes bread. Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire. ⁶Sapphires come from its rocks. It has dust of gold. ⁷That path no bird of prey knows, neither has the falcon’s eye seen it. ⁸The proud animals have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed by there. ⁹He puts his hand on the flinty rock, and he overturns the mountains by the roots. ¹⁰He cuts out channels among the rocks. His eye sees every precious thing. ¹¹He binds the streams that they don’t trickle. The thing that is hidden he brings out to light. ¹²“But where will wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding? ¹³Man doesn’t know its price, and it isn’t found in the land of the living. ¹⁴The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me.’ The sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’ ¹⁵It can’t be gotten for gold, neither will silver be weighed for its price. ¹⁶It can’t be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. ¹⁷Gold and glass can’t equal it, neither will it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold. ¹⁸No mention will be made of coral or of crystal. Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies. ¹⁹The topaz of Ethiopia will not equal it. It won’t be valued with pure gold. ²⁰Where then does wisdom come from? Where is the place of understanding? ²¹Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the birds of the sky. ²²Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’ ²³“God understands its way, and he knows its place. ²⁴For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole sky. ²⁵He establishes the force of the wind. Yes, he measures out the waters by measure. ²⁶When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder, ²⁷then he saw it, and declared it. He established it, yes, and searched it out. ²⁸To man he said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. To depart from evil is understanding.’”

^29:1Job again took up his parable, and said, ²“Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me; ³when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I walked through darkness, ⁴as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was in my tent, ⁵when the Almighty was yet with me, and my children were around me, ⁶when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out streams of oil for me, ⁷when I went out to the city gate, when I prepared my seat in the street. ⁸The young men saw me and hid themselves. The aged rose up and stood. ⁹The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth. ¹⁰The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth. ¹¹For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me, it commended me, ¹²because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him, ¹³the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on 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 to the lame. ¹⁶I was a father to the needy. I researched the cause of him whom I didn’t know. ¹⁷I broke the jaws of the unrighteous and plucked the prey out of his teeth. ¹⁸Then I said, ‘I will die in my own house, I will count my days as the sand. ¹⁹My root is spread out to the waters. The dew lies all night on my branch. ²⁰My glory is fresh in me. My bow is renewed in my hand.’ ²¹“Men listened to me, waited, and kept silence for my counsel. ²²After my words they didn’t speak again. My speech fell on them. ²³They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with the spring rain. ²⁴I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn’t reject the light of my face. ²⁵I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, as one who comforts the mourners.

^30:1“But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I considered unworthy to put with my sheep dogs. ²Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished? ³They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation. ⁴They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom tree are their food. ⁵They are driven out from among men. They cry after them as after a thief, ⁶so that they live in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks. ⁷They bray among the bushes. They are gathered together under the nettles. ⁸They are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men. They were flogged out of the land. ⁹“Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them. ¹⁰They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don’t hesitate to spit in my face. ¹¹For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have thrown off restraint before me. ¹²On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet. They cast their ways of destruction up against me. ¹³They mar my path. They promote my destruction without anyone’s help. ¹⁴As through a wide breach they come. They roll themselves in amid the ruin. ¹⁵Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud. ¹⁶“Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold of me. ¹⁷In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest. ¹⁸My garment is disfigured by great force. It binds me about as the collar of my tunic. ¹⁹He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes. ²⁰I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me. ²¹You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me. ²²You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm. ²³For I know that you will bring me to death, to the house appointed for all living. ²⁴“However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help? ²⁵Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy? ²⁶When I looked for good, then evil came. When I waited for light, darkness came. ²⁷My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest. Days of affliction have come on 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 grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat. ³¹Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.

^31:1“I made a covenant with my eyes; how then should I look lustfully at a young woman? ²For what is the portion from God above, and the heritage from the Almighty on high? ³Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity? ⁴Doesn’t he see my ways, and count all my steps? ⁵“If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit ⁶(let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity); ⁷if my step has turned out of the way, if my heart walked after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands, ⁸then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out. ⁹“If my heart has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door, ¹⁰then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her. ¹¹For that would be a heinous crime. Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, ¹²for 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 servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me, ¹⁴what then will I do when God rises up? When he visits, what will I answer him? ¹⁵Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him? Didn’t one fashion us in the womb? ¹⁶“If 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 has not eaten of it ¹⁸(no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, I have guided her from my mother’s womb); ¹⁹if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering; ²⁰if his heart hasn’t blessed me, if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece; 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 my arm be broken from the bone. ²³For calamity from God is a terror to me. Because of his majesty, I can do nothing. ²⁴“If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence;’ ²⁵If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much; ²⁶if I have seen the sun when it shined, or the moon moving in splendor, ²⁷and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth; ²⁸this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I would have denied the God who is above. ²⁹“If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him ³⁰(I have certainly not allowed my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse); ³¹if the men of my tent have not said, ‘Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?’ ³²(the foreigner has not camped in the street, but I have opened my doors to the traveler); ³³if like Adam I have covered my transgressions, by hiding my iniquity in my heart, ³⁴because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and didn’t go out of the door— ³⁵oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment! ³⁶Surely I would carry it on my shoulder, and I would bind it to me as a crown. ³⁷I would declare to him the number of my steps. I would go near to him like a prince. ³⁸If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together; ³⁹if I have eaten its fruits without money, or have caused its owners to lose their life, ⁴⁰let briers grow instead of wheat, and stinkweed instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.