Job 29–30

Job’s Final Defense

29Then^a Job again took up his discourse and said,

²“O that I were^b as in the months before,

as in the days when God watched over me,

³when his shining lamp was over my head—

by his light I walked through darkness—

⁴as when I was in the days of my prime,

when God’s confiding was over my house,^c

⁵when Shaddai was still with me,

my children were all around me,

⁶when my paths were washed in sour milk,

and the rock poured out streams of oil for me.

⁷“At my going out the gate to the city,

I secured my seat in the square.

⁸Young men saw me and stepped aside,

and the aged rose up and stood.

⁹Officials refrained from talking,

and they laid their hand on their mouth.

¹⁰The voices^d of nobles were hushed,

and their tongue stuck to their palate.

¹¹“When the ear heard and commended me,

and the eye saw and testified in support of me

¹²because I saved the needy who cried for help,

and I saved^e the orphan for whom there was no helper.

¹³The blessing of the wretched came upon me,

and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;

my justice was like a robe and a headband.

¹⁵“I was eyes to the blind,

and I was feet to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the poor,

and I investigated the stranger’s^f legal dispute.

¹⁷And I broke the evil one’s jaw bones,

and I made his prey drop from his teeth.

¹⁸“And I thought, ‘I will pass away in my nest,

and like the phoenix I shall multiply my days.

¹⁹My roots were open to water,

and dew spent the night on my branches;

²⁰My glory was new with me,

and I was revitalized regularly.’^g

²¹“They listened to me and waited,

and they kept silent for my counsel.

²²After my word, they did not speak again,

and my word dropped down like dew upon them.

²³And they waited for me as for the rain,

and they opened their mouth wide as for the spring rain.

²⁴I smiled for them when they had no confidence in anything,

and they did not extinguish the light of my face.

²⁵I chose their way, and I sat as head,

and I dwelled like a king among the troops,

like one who comforts mourners.

Job’s Final Defense Continued

30“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.

²Moreover, what use to me is the strength of their hands?^a

With them, vigor is destroyed.

³Through want and through barren hunger

they are gnawing in the dry region in the darkness of desolation and waste.

⁴They are picking salt herbs, the leaves of bushes,

and the roots of broom trees to warm themselves.

⁵They were driven out from fellow people;

they shout at them as at a^b thief,

⁶so that they dwell^c

in holes of the ground and in the rocks.

⁷They bray among the bushes;

they are gathered under the nettles.

⁸A senseless crowd,^d yes, a disreputable brood,^e

they were cast out from the land.

⁹“But now I am their mocking song,

and I have become a byword for them.

¹⁰They abhor me; they keep aloof from me,

and they do not withhold spit from my face

¹¹because he has loosened his bowstring and humbled me,

and they have thrown off restraint in my presence.^f

¹²On the right hand the brood rises^g up;

they put me to flight,^h

and they build up their siege rampsⁱ against me.

¹³They destroy my path;

they promote my destruction;

they have no helper.

¹⁴As through a wide breach they come;

amid a crash they rush on.

¹⁵Terrors 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.

¹⁷At night I am in great pain;^j

my pains do not take a rest.

¹⁸He seizes my clothing with great power;^k

he grasps me by my tunic’s collar.

¹⁹He has cast me into the dirt,

and I have become like dust^l and ashes.

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

I stand, and you merely look at me.

²¹You have turned cruel to me;

you persecute me with your hand’s might.

²²You lift me up to the wind—you make me ride it,

and you toss me about in the storm.

²³Indeed, 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.

²⁵Have I not wept for the unfortunate,ⁿ

and grieved myself over the poor?

²⁶Indeed, I hoped for good, but evil came,

and I waited for light, but darkness came.

²⁷My bowels are in turmoil, and they are not still;

days of misery come to confront me.

²⁸I go about in mourning garb, but not in sunlight;

I stand up in the assembly, and I cry for help.

²⁹I am a companion for the jackals

and a companion for ostriches.^o

³⁰My skin turns black on me,

and my bones burn with heat.

³¹So^p my lyre came to be used for mourning,

and my flute for the voice of those who weep.