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

¹ But now they that are younger than I hold me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock. ² Yea, how might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom vigor has perished? ³ From want and famine they are gaunt; fleeing of late into the wilderness, desolate and waste. ⁴ Who pick mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their food. ⁵ They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;) ⁶ To dwell in the clefts of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks. ⁷ Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together. ⁸ They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.

⁹ And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword. ¹⁰ They abhor me, they flee far from me, and hesitate not to spit in my face. ¹¹ Because he has loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also cast off restraint before me. ¹² Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction. ¹³ They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper. ¹⁴ They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me. ¹⁵ Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my honor as the wind: and my welfare passes away as a cloud.

¹⁶ And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me. ¹⁷ My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest. ¹⁸ By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it binds me about as the collar of my coat. ¹⁹ He has cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.

²⁰ I cry unto you, and you do not hear me: I stand up, and you regard me not. ²¹ You have become cruel to me: with your strong hand you oppose yourself against me. ²² You lift me up to the wind; you cause me to ride upon it, and spoil my substance. ²³ For I know that you will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.

²⁴ Yet he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry out in his destruction. ²⁵ Did I not weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor? ²⁶ When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. ²⁷ My heart is in turmoil, and rests not: the days of affliction confront me. ²⁸ I went mourning but not in the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation. ²⁹ I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches. ³⁰ My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat. ³¹ My harp also is turned to mourning, and my flute into the voice of them that weep.

¹ I made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I think upon a maiden? ² For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high? ³ Is not destruction to the wicked? and a disaster to the workers of iniquity? ⁴ Does not he see my ways, and count all my steps?

⁵ If I have walked with vanity, or if 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 cleaved to my hands; ⁸ Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.

⁹ If my heart has been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbor's door; ¹⁰ Then let my wife grind for another, and let others bow down upon her. ¹¹ For this 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 did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me; ¹⁴ What then shall I do when God rises up? and when he comes, what shall 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 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 (For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided him from my mother's womb;) ¹⁹ If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering; ²⁰ If his heart has not blessed me, and if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep; ²¹ If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw I had help in the gate: ²² Then let my arm fall from my shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from its socket. ²³ For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his majesty I could not endure.

²⁴ If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, You are 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 shined, or the moon moving in brightness; ²⁷ And my heart has been secretly enticed, or my mouth has kissed my hand: ²⁸ This also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.

²⁹ If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him: ³⁰ Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul. ³¹ If the men of my tent have not, Oh that we had of his meat! we cannot be satisfied. ³² The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveler. ³³ If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom: ³⁴ Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?

³⁵ Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that my adversary had written a book. ³⁶ Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me. ³⁷ I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.

³⁸ If my land cries against me, and its furrows likewise complain; ³⁹ If I have eaten its fruit without payment, or have caused its owners to lose their life: ⁴⁰ Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and weeds instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.