June 14

Job 30:1 — 32:22

30 “And now they have laughed at me, Those younger in days than I am,

          Whose fathers I would have refused

          To place with the dogs of my flock.

 2 Even the power of their hands—of what use was it to me?

          In them vigor has perished.

 3 Because of want and hunger they are sterile,

          Gnawing at a waterless region,

          [Where] yesterday there were storm and desolation.

 4 They were plucking the salt herb by the bushes,

          And the root of broom trees was their food.

 5 From the community they would be driven away;

          People would shout at them as at a thief.

 6 [They have] to reside on the very slope of torrent valleys,

          In holes of the dust and in rocks.

 7 Among the bushes they would cry out;

          Under the nettles they would huddle together.

 8 Sons of the senseless one, also sons of the nameless one,

          They have been scourged out of the land.

 9 And now I have become even the theme of their song,

          And I am to them for a byword.

10 They have detested me, they have kept themselves far from me;

          And from my face they did not hold back [their] spit.

11 For he loosened [my] own bowstring and proceeded to humble me,

          And the bridle they left loose on my account.

12 At [my] right hand they rise up as a brood;

          My feet they have let go,

          But they proceeded to cast up against me their disastrous barriers.

13 They have torn down my roadways;

          They were beneficial only for adversity to me,

          Without their having any helper.

14 As through a wide gap they proceed to come;

          Under a storm they have rolled along.

15 Sudden terrors have been turned upon me;

          My noble bearing is chased like the wind,

          And like a cloud my salvation has passed away.

16 And now my soul is poured out within me;

          Days of affliction take hold upon me.

17 At night my very bones have been bored through [and dropped] from off me,

          And [pains] gnawing me do not take any rest.

18 By the abundance of power my garment takes on a change;

          Like the collar of my long garment it engirdles me.

19 He has brought me down to the clay,

          So that I show myself like dust and ashes.

20 I cry to you for help, but you do not answer me;

          I have stood, that you might show yourself attentive to me.

21 You change yourself to become cruel to me;

          With the full might of your hand you harbor animosity toward me.

22 You lift me to the wind, you cause me to ride [it];

          Then you dissolve me with a crash.

23 For I well know that to death you will make me turn back,

          And to the house of meeting for everyone living.

24 Only no one thrusts his hand out against a mere heap of ruins,

          Nor during one’s decay is there a cry for help respecting those things.

25 Certainly I have wept for the one having a hard day;

          My soul has grieved for the poor one.

26 Although for good I waited, yet bad came;

          And I kept awaiting the light, but gloom came.

27 My own intestines were made to boil and did not keep silent;

          Days of affliction confronted me.

28 Saddened I walked about when there was no sunlight;

          I got up in the congregation, I kept crying for help.

29 A brother to jackals I became,

          And a companion to the daughters of the ostrich.

30 My very skin became black [and dropped] off me,

          And my very bones became hot from dryness.

31 And my harp came to be merely for mourning,

          And my pipe for the voice of weeping ones.

31 “A covenant I have concluded with my eyes.

          So how could I show myself attentive to a virgin?

 2 And what portion is there from God above,

          Or inheritance from the Almighty from on high?

 3 Is there not disaster for a wrongdoer,

          And misfortune for those practicing what is hurtful?

 4 Does he not himself see my ways

          And count even all my steps?

 5 If I have walked with [men of] untruth,

          And my foot hastens to deception,

 6 He will weigh me in accurate scales

          And God will get to know my integrity.

 7 If my stepping deviates from the way,

          Or my heart has walked merely after my eyes,

          Or any defect has stuck in my own palms,

 8 Let me sow seed and someone else eat,

          And let my own descendants be rooted out.

 9 If my heart has been enticed toward a woman,

          And I kept lying in wait at the very entranceway of my companion,

10 Let my wife do the grinding for another man,

          And over her let other men kneel down.

11 For that would be loose conduct,

          And that would be an error for [attention by] the justices.

12 For that is a fire that would eat clear to destruction,

          And among all my produce it would take root.

13 If I used to refuse the judgment of my slave man

          Or of my slave girl in their case at law with me,

14 Then what can I do when God rises up?

          And when he calls for an accounting, what can I answer him?

15 Did not the One making me in the belly make him,

          And did not just One proceed to prepare us in the womb?

16 If I used to hold back the lowly ones from [their] delight,

          And the eyes of the widow I would cause to fail,

17 And I used to eat my morsel by myself,

          While the fatherless boy did not eat from it

18 (For from my youth he grew up with me as with a father,

          And from the belly of my mother I kept leading her);

19 If I used to see anyone perishing from having no garment,

          Or that the poor one had no covering;

20 If his loins did not bless me,

          Nor from the shorn wool of my young rams he would warm himself;

21 If I waved my hand to and fro against the fatherless boy,

          When I would see [need of] my assistance in the gate,

22 Let my own shoulder blade fall from its shoulder,

          And let my own arm be broken from its upper bone.

23 For disaster from God was a dread to me,

          And against his dignity I could not hold out.

24 If I have put gold as my confidence,

          Or to gold I have said, ‘You are my trust!’

25 If I used to rejoice because my property was much,

          And because my hand had found a lot of things;

26 If I used to see the light when it would flash forth,

          Or the precious moon walking along,

27 And my heart began to be enticed in secrecy

          And my hand proceeded to kiss my mouth,

28 That too would be an error for [attention by] the justices,

          For I should have denied the [true] God above.

29 If I used to rejoice at the extinction of one intensely hating me,

          Or I felt excited because evil had found him—

30 And I did not allow my palate to sin

          By asking for an oath against his soul.

31 If the men of my tent did not say,

          ‘Who can produce anyone that has not been satisfied from food of his?’—

32 Outside no alien resident would spend the night;

          My doors I kept open to the path.

33 If like an earthling man I covered over my transgressions

          By hiding my error in my shirt pocket—

34 Because I would suffer a shock at a large crowd,

          Or the contempt itself of families would terrorize me

          And I would keep silent, I would not go out of the entrance.

35 O that I had someone listening to me,

          That according to my signature the Almighty himself would answer me!

          Or that the individual in the case at law with me had written a document itself!

36 Surely upon my shoulder I would carry it;

          I would bind it around me like a grand crown.

37 The number of my steps I would tell him;

          Like a leader I would approach him.

38 If against me my own ground would cry for aid,

          And together its furrows themselves would weep;

39 If its fruitage I have eaten without money,

          And the soul of its owners I have caused to pant,

40 Instead of wheat let the thorny weed go forth,

          And instead of barley stinking weeds.”
 

The words of Job have come to an end.

32 So these three men ceased from answering Job, for he was righteous in his own eyes. 2 But the anger of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite of the family of Ram came to be hot. Against Job his anger blazed over his declaring his own soul righteous rather than God. 3 Also, against his three companions his anger blazed over the fact that they had not found an answer but they proceeded to pronounce God wicked. 4 And Elihu himself had waited for Job with words, because they were older than he was in days. 5 And Elihu gradually saw that there was no answer in the mouth of the three men, and his anger kept getting hotter. 6 And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite proceeded to answer and say:
 

    “Young I am in days

                 And YOU men are aged.

          That is why I drew back and was afraid

          To declare my knowledge to YOU men.

 7 I said, ‘Days themselves should speak,

          And a multitude of years are what should make wisdom known.’

 8 Surely it is the spirit in mortal men

          And the breath of the Almighty [that] gives them understanding.

 9 It is not those merely abundant in days that prove wise,

          Nor those just old that understand judgment.

10 Therefore I said, ‘Do listen to me.

          I shall declare my knowledge, even I.’

11 Look! I have waited for the words of YOU men,

          I kept giving ear to YOUR reasonings,

          Until YOU could search for words [to say].

12 And to YOU I kept my attention turned,

          And here there is no one reproving Job,

          None of YOU answering his sayings,

13 That YOU may not say, ‘We have found wisdom;

          It is God that drives him away, not a man.’

14 As he has not arrayed words against me,

          So with the sayings of YOU men I shall not reply to him.

15 They have been terrified, they have answered no more;

          Words have moved away from them.

16 And I have waited, for they do not continue speaking;

          For they stood still, they answered no more.

17 I shall give in answer my part, even I;

          I shall declare my knowledge, even I;

18 For I have become full of words;

          Spirit has brought pressure upon me in my belly.

19 Look! My belly is like wine that has no vent;

          Like new skin bottles it wants to burst open.

20 Let me speak that it may be a relief to me.

          I shall open my lips that I may answer.

21 Let me not, please, show partiality to a man;

          And on an earthling man I shall not bestow a title;

22 For I certainly do not know how I can bestow a title;

          Easily my Maker would carry me away.