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

¹ But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. ² Yea, whereto should the strength of their hands profit me, men in whom vigour hath perished? ³ Withered up through want and hunger, they flee into waste places long since desolate and desert: ⁴ They gather the salt-wort among the bushes, and the roots of the broom for their food. ⁵ They are driven forth from among men they cry after them as after a thief -- ⁶ To dwell in gloomy gorges, in caves of the earth and the rocks: ⁷ They bray among the bushes; under the brambles they are gathered together: ⁸ Sons of fools, and sons of nameless sires, they are driven out of the land.

⁹ And now I am their song, yea, I am their byword. ¹⁰ They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, yea, they spare not to spit in my face. ¹¹ For he hath loosed my cord and afflicted me; so they cast off the bridle before me. ¹² At my right hand rise the young brood; they push away my feet, and raise up against me their pernicious ways; ¹³ They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, without any to help them; ¹⁴ They come in as through a wide breach: amid the confusion they roll themselves onward. ¹⁵ Terrors are turned against me; they pursue mine honour as the wind; and my welfare is passed away like a cloud.

¹⁶ And now my soul is poured out in me; days of affliction have taken hold upon me. ¹⁷ The night pierceth through my bones and detacheth them from me, and my gnawing pains take no rest: ¹⁸ By their great force they have become my raiment; they bind me about as the collar of my coat. ¹⁹ He hath cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰ I cry unto thee, and thou answerest me not; I stand up, and thou lookest at me. ²¹ Thou art changed to a cruel one to me; with the strength of thy hand thou pursuest me. ²² Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to be borne away, and dissolvest my substance. ²³ For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and into the house of assemblage for all living.

²⁴ Indeed, no prayer availeth when he stretcheth out his hand: though they cry when he destroyeth. ²⁵ Did not I weep for him whose days were hard? was not my soul grieved for the needy? ²⁶ For I expected good, and there came evil; and I waited for light, but there came darkness. ²⁷ My bowels well up, and rest not; days of affliction have confronted me. ²⁸ I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up, I cry in the congregation. ²⁹ I am become a brother to jackals, and a companion of ostriches. ³⁰ My skin is become black and falleth off me, and my bones are parched with heat. ³¹ My harp also is turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of weepers.

¹ I made a covenant with mine eyes; and how should I fix my regard upon a maid? ² For what would have been my portion of +God from above, and what the heritage of the Almighty from on high? ³ Is not calamity for the unrighteous? and misfortune for the workers of iniquity? ⁴ Doth not he see my ways, and number all my steps?

⁵ If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot hath hasted to deceit, ⁶ (Let me be weighed in an even balance, and +God will take knowledge of my blamelessness;)

⁷ If my step have turned out of the way, and my heart followed mine eyes, and if any blot cleaveth to my hands; ⁸ Let me sow, and another eat; and let mine offspring be rooted out.

⁹ If my heart have been enticed unto a woman, so that I laid wait at my neighbour's door, ¹⁰ Let my wife grind for another, and let others bow down upon her. ¹¹ For this is an infamy; yea, it is an iniquity to be judged by the judges: ¹² For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.

¹³ If I have despised the cause of my bondman or of my bondmaid, when they contended with me, ¹⁴ What then should I do when God riseth up? and if he visited, what should I answer him? ¹⁵ Did not he that 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 caused the eyes of the widow to fail; ¹⁷ Or have eaten my morsel alone, so that the fatherless ate not thereof, ¹⁸ (For from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, and I have guided the widow from my mother's womb;) ¹⁹ If I have seen any perishing for want of clothing, or any needy without covering; ²⁰ If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my lambs; ²¹ If I have lifted up my hand against an orphan, because I saw my help in the gate: ²² Then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder-blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone! ²³ For calamity from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his excellency I was powerless.

²⁴ If I have made gold my hope, or said to the fine gold, My confidence! ²⁵ If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much; ²⁶ If I beheld the sun when it shone, or the moon walking in brightness, ²⁷ And my heart have been secretly enticed, so that my mouth kissed my hand: ²⁸ This also would be an iniquity for the judge, for I should have denied the God who is above.

²⁹ If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, and exulted when evil befell him; ³⁰ (Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse;) ³¹ If the men of my tent said not, Who shall find one that hath not been satisfied with his meat? -- ³² The stranger did not lodge without; I opened my doors to the pathway. ³³ If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom, ³⁴ Because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and went not out of the door, ...

³⁵ Oh that I had one to hear me! Behold my signature: let the Almighty answer me! And let mine opponent write an accusation! ³⁶ Would I not take it upon my shoulder? I would bind it on to me as a crown; ³⁷ I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I come near to him.

³⁸ If my land cry out against me, and its furrows weep together; ³⁹ If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, and have tormented to death the souls of its owners: ⁴⁰ Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and tares instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.