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

¹ "But now they mock me, those who are younger than I, whose fathers I disdained too much to put with my sheep dogs. ² Moreover, the strength of their hands -- what use was it to me? Men whose strength had perished; ³ gaunt with want and hunger, they would gnaw the parched land, in former time desolate and waste. ⁴ By the brush they would gather herbs from the salt marshes, and the root of the broom tree was their food. ⁵ They were banished from the community -- people shouted at them like they would shout at thieves -- ⁶ so that they had to live in the dry stream beds, in the holes of the ground, and among the rocks. ⁷ They brayed like animals among the bushes and were huddled together under the nettles. ⁸ Sons of senseless and nameless people, they were driven out of the land with whips.

⁹ "And now I have become their taunt song; I have become a byword among them. ¹⁰ They detest me and maintain their distance; they do not hesitate to spit in my face. ¹¹ Because God has untied my tent cord and afflicted me, people throw off all restraint in my presence. ¹² On my right the young rabble rise up; they drive me from place to place, and build up siege ramps against me. ¹³ They destroy my path; they succeed in destroying me without anyone assisting them. ¹⁴ They come in as through a wide breach; amid the crash they come rolling in. ¹⁵ Terrors are turned loose on me; they drive away my honor like the wind, and like a cloud my deliverance has passed away.

¹⁶ "And now my soul pours itself out within me; days of suffering take hold of me. ¹⁷ Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never cease. ¹⁸ With great power God grasps my clothing; he binds me like the collar of my tunic. ¹⁹ He has flung me into the mud, and I have come to resemble dust and ashes.

²⁰ I cry out to you, but you do not answer me; I stand up, and you only look at me. ²¹ You have become cruel to me; with the strength of your hand you attack me. ²² You pick me up on the wind and make me ride on it; you toss me about in the storm. ²³ I know that you are bringing me to death, to the meeting place for all the living.

²⁴ "Surely one does not stretch out his hand against a broken man when he cries for help in his distress. ²⁵ Have I not wept for the unfortunate? Was not my soul grieved for the poor? ²⁶ But when I hoped for good, trouble came; when I expected light, then darkness came. ²⁷ My heart is in turmoil unceasingly; the days of my affliction confront me. ²⁸ I go about blackened, but not by the sun; in the assembly I stand up and cry for help. ²⁹ I have become a brother to jackals and a companion of ostriches. ³⁰ My skin has turned dark on me; my body is hot with fever. ³¹ My harp is used for mourning and my flute for the sound of weeping.

¹ "I made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I entertain thoughts against a virgin? ² What then would be one's lot from God above, one's heritage from the Almighty on high? ³ Is it not misfortune for the unjust, and disaster for those who work iniquity? ⁴ Does he not see my ways and count all my steps?

⁵ If I have walked in falsehood, and if my foot has hastened to deceit -- ⁶ let him weigh me with honest scales; then God will discover my integrity.

⁷ If my footsteps have strayed from the way, if my heart has gone after my eyes, or if anything has defiled my hands, ⁸ then let me sow and let another eat, and let my crops be uprooted.

⁹ If my heart has been enticed by a woman, and I have lain in wait at my neighbor's door, ¹⁰ then let my wife turn the millstone for another man, and may other men have sexual relations with her. ¹¹ For I would have committed a shameful act, an iniquity to be judged. ¹² For it is a fire that devours even to Destruction, and it would uproot all my harvest.

¹³ "If I have disregarded the right of my male servants or my female servants when they disputed with me, ¹⁴ then what will I do when God confronts me in judgment; when he intervenes, how will I respond to him? ¹⁵ Did not the one who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us in the womb?

¹⁶ If I have refused to give the poor what they desired, or caused the eyes of the widow to fail, ¹⁷ If I ate my morsel of bread myself, and did not share any of it with orphans -- ¹⁸ but from my youth I raised the orphan like a father, and from my mother's womb I guided the widow! ¹⁹ If I have seen anyone about to perish for lack of clothing, or a poor man without a coat, ²⁰ whose heart did not bless me as he warmed himself with the fleece of my sheep, ²¹ if I have raised my hand to vote against the orphan, when I saw my support in the court, ²² then let my arm fall from the shoulder, let my arm be broken off at the socket. ²³ For the calamity from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his majesty I was powerless.

²⁴ "If I have put my confidence in gold or said to pure gold, 'You are my security!' ²⁵ if I have rejoiced because of the extent of my wealth, or because of the great wealth my hand had gained, ²⁶ if I looked at the sun when it was shining, and the moon advancing as a precious thing, ²⁷ so that my heart was secretly enticed, and my hand threw them a kiss from my mouth, ²⁸ then this also would be iniquity to be judged, for I would have been false to God above.

²⁹ If I have rejoiced over the misfortune of my enemy or exulted because calamity found him -- ³⁰ I have not even permitted my mouth to sin by asking for his life through a curse -- ³¹ if the members of my household have never said, 'If only there were someone who has not been satisfied from Job's meat!' -- ³² But no stranger had to spend the night outside, for I opened my doors to the traveler -- ³³ if I have covered my transgressions as men do, by hiding iniquity in my heart, ³⁴ because I was terrified of the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I remained silent and would not go outdoors --

³⁵ "If only I had someone to hear me! Here is my signature -- let the Almighty answer me! If only I had an indictment that my accuser had written. ³⁶ Surely I would wear it proudly on my shoulder, I would bind it on me like a crown; ³⁷ I would give him an accounting of my steps; like a prince I would approach him.

³⁸ "If my land cried out against me and all its furrows wept together, ³⁹ if I have eaten its produce without paying, or caused the death of its owners, ⁴⁰ then let thorns sprout up in place of wheat, and in place of barley, weeds!" The words of Job are ended.