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

¹ "But now [those] younger than I, as far as days, laugh at me, whose fathers I rejected for setting with the dogs of my sheep and goats. ² Moreover, {what use to me is the strength of their hands}? With them, vigor is destroyed. ³ Through want and through barren hunger they are gnawing [in the] dry region [in the] darkness of desolation and waste. ⁴ They are picking salt herbs, the leaves of bushes, and [the] roots of broom trees to warm themselves. ⁵ They were driven out from fellow people; they shout at them as [at] a thief, ⁶ {so that they dwell} [in] holes of [the] ground and [in the] rocks. ⁷ They bray among [the] bushes; they are gathered under [the] nettles. ⁸ {A senseless crowd}, yes, {a disreputable brood}, they were cast out from the land.

⁹ "But now I am their mocking song, and I have become a byword for them. ¹⁰ They abhor me; they keep aloof from me, and they do not withhold spit from my face ¹¹ because he has loosened his bowstring and humbled me, and they have thrown off restraint {in my presence}. ¹² On [the] right hand the brood rises up; {they put me to flight}, and they build up their {siege ramps} against me. ¹³ They destroy my path; they promote my destruction; they have no helper. ¹⁴ As [through] a wide breach they come; amid a crash they rush on. ¹⁵ Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as [by] the wind, and my hope of deliverance passed by like a cloud.

¹⁶ "And now my life is poured out onto me; days of misery have taken hold of me. ¹⁷ {At night I am in great pain}; my pains do not take a rest. ¹⁸ He seizes my clothing with {great power}; he grasps me by my tunic's collar. ¹⁹ He has cast me into the dirt, and I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰ I cry to you for help, but you do not answer me; I stand, and you [merely] look at me. ²¹ You have turned cruel to me; you persecute me with your hand's might. ²² You lift me up to [the] wind--you make me ride [it], and you toss me about [in] the storm. ²³ Indeed, I know [that] you will bring me to death and [to the] house of assembly for all [the] living.

²⁴ "Surely someone must not send a hand against [the] needy when, in his misfortune, [there is] a cry of help for them. ²⁵ Have I not wept for {the unfortunate}, [and] grieved myself over the poor? ²⁶ Indeed, I hoped for good, but evil came, and I waited for light, but darkness came. ²⁷ My bowels are in turmoil, and they are not still; days of misery come to confront me. ²⁸ I go [about] in mourning garb, [but] not in sunlight; I stand up in the assembly, [and] I cry for help. ²⁹ I am a companion for [the] jackals and a companion for {ostriches}. ³⁰ My skin turns black on me, and my bones burn with heat. ³¹ So my lyre came to be [used] for mourning, and my flute [for the] voice of [those who] weep.

¹ "I made a covenant with my eyes, so how could I look closely upon a virgin? ² And what [is] the portion of God from above or the heritage of Shaddai from on high? ³ Is not disaster for [the] evil one and ruin for [the] workers of mischief? ⁴ Does he not see my ways and count all my steps?

⁵ "If I have walked with falseness, and my foot has hastened to deceit, ⁶ let him weigh me in [the] balance of justice, and let God know my blamelessness.

⁷ If my steps have turned aside from the way, and my heart has walked after my eyes, and my hand has clung to a spot, ⁸ let me sow, and let another eat, and let my crops be rooted out.

⁹ "If my heart has been enticed by a woman, and at my neighbor's doorway I have lain in wait, ¹⁰ let my wife grind for another, and let other [men] kneel over her, ¹¹ for that [is] a shameful act, and that [is] {a criminal offense}. ¹² Indeed, that [is] a fire that will consume up to Abaddon, and it would uproot all my crop.

¹³ "If I have rejected my male or female slave's case when their complaint [was] against me, ¹⁴ then what shall I do when God rises up? And when he enquires, how shall I answer him? ¹⁵ Did not he [who] made me in the womb make them? And did not one fashion us in the womb?

¹⁶ "If I have withheld [the] desire of [the] poor from [them], or I have caused [the] widow's eyes to fail, ¹⁷ or I have eaten my morsel {alone}, and [the] orphan has not eaten from it ¹⁸ (for from my childhood he {grew up with} me like a father, and from my mother's womb I guided her), ¹⁹ if I have seen [the one who] perishes because of no clothing or [that] there is no covering for the poor, ²⁰ if his loins have not blessed me, or by means of my sheep's fleece he has warmed himself, ²¹ if I have raised my hand against an orphan because I saw my supporters at the gate, ²² [then] let my shoulder blade fall from [my] shoulder, and let my arm be broken from its socket. ²³ Indeed, the disaster from God [was] a dread for me, and {I was powerless} because of his majesty.

²⁴ "If I have made gold my trust, or I have called fine gold my security, ²⁵ if I have rejoiced because my wealth [was] great or because my hand found a fortune, ²⁶ if I looked at [the] sun when it shone or [at the] moon moving [in] splendor, ²⁷ and {I was secretly enticed}, and {my hand threw them a kiss}, ²⁸ this also [is] an iniquity [to be] judged, for I have deceived God above.

²⁹ "If I have rejoiced at [the] ruin of [the one who] hated me or have exulted when evil overtook him-- ³⁰ no, I have not allowed my mouth to sin, to ask his life with a curse. ³¹ {Have the people of my tent not said}, '{O that} someone had not been satisfied with his meat'? ³² An alien has not lodged in the street; I have opened my door to the traveler. ³³ {Have I concealed} my transgressions as [other] human beings to hide my iniquity in my bosom ³⁴ because I dreaded [the] great multitude, and [the] contempt of clans terrified me, so that I kept quiet, I did not go out of [the] doorway?

³⁵ {O that} {I had} someone hearing me! Here is my signature; let Shaddai answer me! {As for} [the] written communication [that] {my adversary} has written, ³⁶ I would {surely} carry it on my shoulder; I would bind it on me [like] a crown. ³⁷ I would give him an account of my steps; I would approach him like a noble.

³⁸ If my land has cried out against me, and its furrows have wept together, ³⁹ if I have eaten its yield without payment, or I have caused [the] breath of its owners to die, ⁴⁰ let thorns grow in place of wheat and noxious weeds in place of barley." The words of Job are ended.