Job 30:1-31 - Job's Final Defense Continued

¹ But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. ² Yea, the strength of their hands, to what should it profit me? Men in whom ripe age is perished. ³ They are gaunt with want and famine. They gnaw the dry ground in the gloom of waste and desolation. ⁴ They pluck mallows by the bushes, and the roots of the juniper are their food. ⁵ They are driven forth from the midst [of men]. They cry out after them as after a thief, ⁶ so that they dwell in frightful valleys, in holes of the earth and of the rocks. ⁷ Among the bushes they bray, under the nettles they are gathered together. ⁸ [They are] sons of fools, yea, sons of base men. They were scourged out of the land.

⁹ And now I have become their song, Yea, I am a byword to them. ¹⁰ They abhor me. They stand aloof from me, and do not spare to spit in my face. ¹¹ For he has loosed his cord, and afflicted me. And they have cast off the bridle before me. ¹² Upon my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, and they cast up against me their ways of destruction. ¹³ They mar my path. They set forward my calamity, [even] men who have no helper. ¹⁴ As through a wide breach they come. In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves [upon me]. ¹⁵ Terrors are turned upon me. They chase my honor as the wind, and my welfare is passed away as a cloud.

¹⁶ And now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold upon me. ¹⁷ In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the [pains] that gnaw me take no rest. ¹⁸ By the great force my garment is disfigured. 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 to thee, and thou do not answer me. I stand up, and thou gaze at me. ²¹ Thou have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of thy hand thou persecute me. ²² Thou lift me up to the wind. Thou cause me to ride [upon it], and thou disintegrate me in the storm. ²³ For I know that thou will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.

²⁴ However does not a man stretch out the hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help? ²⁵ Did I not weep for him who was in trouble? Was not my soul grieved for the needy? ²⁶ When I looked for good, then evil came. And when I waited for light, there came darkness. ²⁷ My heart is troubled, and does not rest. Days of affliction have come upon me. ²⁸ I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help. ²⁹ I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches. ³⁰ My skin is black, [and falls] from me. And my bones are burned with heat. ³¹ Therefore my harp has [turned] to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.

¹ I made a covenant with my eyes. How then should I look upon a virgin? ² For what is the portion from God above, and the heritage from the Almighty on high? ³ Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity? ⁴ Does he not see my ways, and number all my steps?

⁵ If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hastened to 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 way, and my heart walked after my eyes, and if any spot has clung to my hands, ⁸ then let me sow, and let another eat, yea, 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, ¹⁰ then let my wife grind to another, and let others bow down upon her. ¹¹ For that is a heinous crime, yea, 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 case of my man-servant or of my maid-servant when they contended with me, ¹⁴ what then shall I do when God rises up? And when he visits, what shall I answer him? ¹⁵ Did not he who made me in the womb make him? And did not 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, ¹⁷ or 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, and her I have guided from my mother's womb); ¹⁹ if I have seen any perish for lack of clothing, or that the needy had no covering; ²⁰ if his loins have not blessed me, and if he has not been warmed with the fleece of my sheep; ²¹ if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate, ²² then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder-blade, and my arm be broken from the bone. ²³ For calamity from God is a terror to me, and I can do nothing because of his majesty.

²⁴ If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, [Thou are] my confidence; ²⁵ if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much; ²⁶ if I have beheld the sun when it shone, or the moon walking in brightness, ²⁷ and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my mouth has kissed my hand ²⁸ (this also is an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I would have denied the God that is above);

²⁹ if I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him ³⁰ (yea, I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse); ³¹ if the men of my tent have not said, Who can find one who has not been filled with his food? ³² (the sojourner has not lodged in the street, but I have opened my doors to the traveler); ³³ if like Adam I have covered my transgressions by hiding my iniquity in my bosom ³⁴ because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me so that I kept silence, and did not go out of the door--

³⁵ O that I had someone to hear me (Lo, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me), and [that I had] the indictment which my adversary has written! ³⁶ Surely I would carry it upon my shoulder. I would bind it to me as a crown. ³⁷ I would declare to him the number of my steps. I would go near to him as a prince.

³⁸ If my land cries out against me, and the furrows of it weep together; ³⁹ if I have eaten the fruits of it without money, or have caused the owners of it to lose their lives, ⁴⁰ let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.