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

¹ But, now, they who are of fewer days than I, have poured derision upon me; whose fathers I refused - to set with the dogs of my flock. ² Even the strength of their hands, wherefore was it mine? Upon them, vigour was lost; ³ In want and hunger, they were lean, - who used to gnaw the dry ground, a dark night of desolation! ⁴ Who used to pluck off the mallow by the bushes, with the root of the broom for their food; ⁵ Out of the midst, were they driven, men shouted after them, as after a thief; ⁶ In the fissures, of the ravines had they to dwell, in holes of dust and crags; ⁷ Among the bushes, used they to shriek, Under the bramble, were they huddled together: ⁸ Sons of the base, yea sons of the nameless, they were scourged out of the land.

⁹ But, now, their song, have I become, Yea I serve them for a byword; ¹⁰ They abhor me - have put themselves far from me, and, from my face, have not withheld - spittle! ¹¹ Because, my girdle, he had loosened and had humbled me, therefore, the bridle - in my presence, cast they off; ¹² On my right hand, the young brood rose up, - My feet, they thrust aside, and cast up against me their earthworks of destruction; ¹³ They brake up my path, - My engulfing ruin, they helped forward, unaided; ¹⁴ As through a wide breach, came they on, with a crashing noise, they rolled themselves along. ¹⁵ There are turned upon me terrors, - Chased away as with a wind, is mine abundance, and, as a cloud, hath passed away my prosperity.

¹⁶ Now, therefore, over myself, my soul poureth itself out, There seize me days of affliction: ¹⁷ Night, boreth, my bones, all over me, - and, my sinews, find no rest; ¹⁸ Most effectually, is my skin disfigured, - Like the collar of my tunic, it girdeth me about: ¹⁹ He hath cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰ I cry out for help unto thee, and thou dost not answer, I stand still, and thou dost gaze at me; ²¹ Thou art turned to become a cruel one unto me, With the might of thy hand, thou assailest me; ²² Thou liftest up me to the wind, thou carriest me away, and the storm maketh me faint; ²³ For I know that, unto death, thou wilt bring me back, even unto the house of meeting for every one living.

²⁴ Only, against a heap of ruins, will one not thrust a hand! Surely, when one is in calamity - for that very reason, is there an outcry for help. ²⁵ Verily I wept, for him whose lot was hard, Grieved was my soul, for the needy. ²⁶ Surely, for good, I looked, but there came in evil, And I waited for light, but there came in darkness; ²⁷ I boiled within me, and rested not, There confronted me - days of affliction; ²⁸ In gloom, I walked along, without sun, I arose - in the convocation, I cried out for help; ²⁹ A brother, became I to the brutes that howl, and a companion to the birds that screech: ³⁰ My skin, turned black, and peeled off me, and, my bones, burned with heat: ³¹ Thus is attuned to mourning - my lyre, and my flute, to the noise of them who weep.

¹ A covenant, I solemnised for mine eyes, - How then could I gaze upon a virgin? ² Or what would have been my portion of GOD from above? Or what inheritance of the Almighty from on high? ³ Is there not calamity, for the perverse? and misfortune, for the workers of iniquity? ⁴ Would, he, not see my ways? and of all my steps, take account?

⁵ Verily I walked not in falsity, nor did my foot haste unto deceit: - ⁶ Let him weigh me in balances of righteousness, - and let GOD take note of mine integrity!

⁷ If my goings have swerved from the way, - and, after mine eyes, hath gone my heart, and, to my hands, hath adhered any stain, ⁸ Let me sow but, another, eat. And let, what I have springing up, be uprooted!

⁹ If my heart hath been enticed unto a woman, or, by the door of my neighbour, I have lien in wait, ¹⁰ Let my wife, grind to another, and, over her, let others bend! ¹¹ Surely that had been a shameful thing! and that an iniquity for the judges! ¹² Surely, a fire, had that been, which, unto destruction, would have consumed, and, of all mine increase, had it torn up the root.

¹³ If I refused the right of my servant, or my handmaid, when they contended with me, ¹⁴ What then could I have done when GOD rose up? And, when he visited, what could I have answered him? ¹⁵ Did not he who, in the womb, made me, make him? And is not he who formed us in the body one?

¹⁶ If I withheld - from pleasure - the poor, or, the eyes of the widow, I dimmed; ¹⁷ Or, used to eat my morsel alone, so that the fatherless did not eat thereof; ¹⁸ Surely, from my youth, he grew up to me, as to a father, and, from my birth, I acted as guide to her: ¹⁹ If I saw one perishing for lack of clothing, or that the needy had no covering; ²⁰ If his loins did not bless me, or if, with the fleece of my lambs, he did not warm himself; ²¹ If I shook - against the fatherless - my hand, when I saw, in the gate, his need of my help, ²² Let, my shoulder, from the shoulder-blade, fall, and, my arm, from the upper bone, be broken; ²³ For, a dread unto me, was calamity from GOD, and, from his majesty, I could not escape.

²⁴ If I made gold my stay, and, to precious metal, said, My confidence! ²⁵ If I rejoiced because great was my substance, and, an abundance, my hand had discovered; ²⁶ If I looked at the sun, when it flashed forth light, or at the moon, majestically marching along; ²⁷ And befooled secretly was my heart, so that my hand kissed my mouth, ²⁸ That too, had been a judicial iniquity, For I should have been false to GOD, above.

²⁹ If rejoiced in the misfortune of him that hated me, or exulted when calamity found him; - ³⁰ Neither did I suffer my palate to sin, by asking, with a curse, for his life: ³¹ If the men of my household have not said, Oh for some of his flesh - we cannot get filled, ³² Outside, the sojourner lodged not for the night, My doors - to the wayfarer, I threw open. ³³ If I covered, like Adam, my transgressions, by hiding in my bosom mine iniquity, ³⁴ Then let me be made to tremble at a great throng, yea let, the contempt of families, terrify me, so that, keeping silence, I shall not go out of the door!

³⁵ Oh that I had one to hear me, Lo! my crossmark, May, the Almighty, answer me! And would that, a book, mine opponent had written! ³⁶ Oh! would I not, upon my shoulder, lift it, or bind it as a crown upon me; ³⁷ The number of my footsteps, I would declare to him, Like a noble, would I draw near to him.

³⁸ If, against me, my ground used to cry out, and, together, my ridges did weep; ³⁹ If, the strength thereof, I used to eat, without payment, and, the soul of the holders thereof, I made groan; ⁴⁰ Instead of wheat, let there come forth bramble, and, instead of barley, a bad-smelling weed! Ended are the words of Job.