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

¹ But now those younger laugh at me, whose fathers I would have refused to set with the dogs of my flock. ² Also, what profit for me was the strength of their hands, for full vigor had perished from them? ³ They are dried up with want and famine; they who gnaw the dry ground, which was before waste and ruin, ⁴ those plucking mallows by the bushes, and broom roots for their food. ⁵ They are driven forth from the midst; they cried against them as a thief. ⁶ They dwell in the chasms of the valleys, in holes of the earth and in rocks. ⁷ They bray among the bushes; they huddle together under the nettles; ⁸ sons of fools, yea, sons without a name; they have been whipped out of the land.

⁹ And now I am their song; yea, I am their byword. ¹⁰ They despise me, and they flee far from me; they do not spare spit from my face. ¹¹ Because He has loosed His bowstring and afflicted me, they have also thrown off the bridle before me. ¹² On my right a brood rises; they push away my feet and raise up against me the ways of their ruin. ¹³ They have broken down my path, they gain by my trouble; they have no helper. ¹⁴ As through a wide break they came on; they roll under a ruin. ¹⁵ Terrors have turned on me; they pursue my soul like the wind; and my good passes away like a cloud.

¹⁶ And now my soul is poured out within me; the days of affliction have taken hold on me. ¹⁷ My bones are pierced in me in the night; and my gnawings never lie down. ¹⁸ By the great force of my disease my clothing is exposed; it binds me about like the mouth of my coat. ¹⁹ He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰ I cried to You, and You did not hear me; I stood up, and You did not consider me. ²¹ You changed to be cruel to me; with Your mighty hand You assault me. ²² You lift me up to the wind; You cause me to ride on it; and You melt me in a storm. ²³ For I know that You will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.

²⁴ Surely He will not stretch out His hand to the ruin-heap, though they cry in their misfortune. ²⁵ Did I not weep for him whose day was hard; and my soul grieved for the poor? ²⁶ When I looked for good, then evil came; and when I waited for light, then darkness came. ²⁷ My bowels boiled, and did not rest; the days of trouble confront me. ²⁸ I go in mourning with no sun; I stood up and I cried out in the congregation. ²⁹ I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to daughters of the ostrich. ³⁰ My skin is black on me, and my bones are burned with heat. ³¹ And my lyre has turned to mourning, and my flute to the sound of weeping.

¹ I made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I look upon a virgin? ² For what is the portion from God above? And what is the inheritance from the Almighty on high? ³ Is not disaster to the perverse, and calamity to the workers of iniquity? ⁴ Does He not see my ways, and count all my steps?

⁵ If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot has hurried to deceit, ⁶ let me be weighed in an even balance so that God may know my uprightness.

⁷ If my step has turned out of the way, or my heart has walked after my eyes, and if any blot has held fast to my hands; ⁸ then let me sow, and let another eat; and let my harvests be rooted out.

⁹ If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or I have laid wait at my neighbor's door, ¹⁰ then let my wife grind to another, and let others bow down on her. ¹¹ For that would be an evil purpose; yea, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges. ¹² For it is a fire that devours to the Place of Ruin, and it would root out all my gain.

¹³ If I despised the cause of my man servant or of my slave-girl, when they argued with me; ¹⁴ what then shall I do when God rises up? And when He calls me to account, what shall I answer Him? ¹⁵ Did not He who made me in the womb make him? And did not One shape 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 bit alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it, ¹⁸ for from my youth he grew up with me, as with a father, and from my mother's womb I guided her; ¹⁹ if I have seen any perish for lack of clothing, or there was no covering for the needy; ²⁰ if his loins have not blessed me, and he warmed himself with the fleece of my flock; ²¹ if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless when I watched over my help in the gate; ²² then let my arm fall from the shoulder blade, and let my arm be broken from the elbow. ²³ For trouble from God is a terror to me, and I could not do anything because of His highness.

²⁴ If I have made gold my hope, or have called fine gold my trust; ²⁵ if I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much; ²⁶ if I looked to the light when it shone, or the moon walking in brightness, ²⁷ and my heart has been secretly enticed, or my mouth has kissed my hand; ²⁸ this also would be an iniquity for the judges; for I would have denied the God above.

²⁹ If I rejoiced at the ruin of my hater, and I was excited when evil found him; ³⁰ also I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse; ³¹ if the men of my camp did not say, Who can find one who has not been satisfied with his meat? ³² The stranger did not sleep in the street, for I opened my doors to the traveler. ³³ If I covered my transgressions like Adam, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom, ³⁴ then let me tremble before a great multitude, and be terrified by the scorn of families; and I will be silent and not go out the door.

³⁵ Oh that I had one to hear me! Behold my mark. Let the Almighty answer me, and my Accuser write an indictment. ³⁶ Surely I would carry it on my shoulder, and bind it like crowns to me. ³⁷ I would declare to Him the number of my steps; like a prince I would go near Him.

³⁸ If my lands cry against me, or its furrows weep together; ³⁹ if I have eaten its strength without silver, or have caused its owner to expire, ⁴⁰ let thorns come forth instead of wheat, and weeds instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.