Job 29–30

Job Continues

29Job continued to speak:

²“How I wish for the months that have passed

and the days when God watched over me.

³God’s lamp shined on my head,

and I walked through darkness by his light.

⁴I wish for the days when I was strong,

when God’s close friendship blessed my house.

⁵The Almighty was still with me,

and my children were all around me.

⁶It was as if my path were covered with cream

and the rocks poured out olive oil for me.

⁷I would go to the city gate

and sit in the public square.

⁸When the young men saw me, they would step aside,

and the old men would stand up in respect.

⁹The leading men stopped speaking

and covered their mouths with their hands.

¹⁰The voices of the important men were quiet,

as if their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.

¹¹Anyone who heard me spoke well of me,

and those who saw me praised me,

¹²because I saved the poor who called out

and the orphan who had no one to help.

¹³The dying person blessed me,

and I made the widow’s heart sing.

¹⁴I put on right living as if it were clothing;

I wore fairness like a robe and a turban.

¹⁵I was eyes for the blind

and feet for the lame.

¹⁶I was like a father to needy people,

and I took the side of strangers who were in trouble.

¹⁷I broke the fangs of evil people

and snatched the captives from their teeth.

¹⁸“I thought, ‘I will live for as many days as there are grains of sand,

and I will die in my own house.

¹⁹My roots will reach down to the water.

The dew will lie on the branches all night.

²⁰New honors will come to me continually,

and I will always have great strength.’

²¹“People listened to me carefully

and waited quietly for my advice.

²²After I finished speaking, they spoke no more.

My words fell very gently on their ears.

²³They waited for me as they would for rain

and drank in my words like spring rain.

²⁴I smiled at them when they doubted,

and my approval was important to them.

²⁵I chose the way for them and was their leader.

I lived like a king among his army,

like a person who comforts sad people.

30“But now those who are younger than I

make fun of me.

I would not have even let their fathers

sit with my sheep dogs.

²What use did I have for their strength

since they had lost their strength to work?

³They were thin from hunger

and wandered the dry and ruined land at night.

⁴They gathered desert plants among the brush

and ate the root of the broom tree.

⁵They were forced to live away from people;

people shouted at them as if they were thieves.

⁶They lived in dried up streambeds,

in caves, and among the rocks.

⁷They howled like animals among the bushes

and huddled together in the brush.

⁸They are worthless people without names

and were forced to leave the land.

⁹“Now they make fun of me with songs;

my name is a joke among them.

¹⁰They hate me and stay far away from me,

but they do not mind spitting in my face.

¹¹God has taken away my strength and made me suffer,

so they attack me with all their anger.

¹²On my right side they rise up like a mob.

They lay traps for my feet

and prepare to attack me.

¹³They break up my road

and work to destroy me,

and no one helps me.

¹⁴They come at me as if through a hole in the wall,

and they roll in among the ruins.

¹⁵Great fears overwhelm me.

They blow my honor away as if by a great wind,

and my safety disappears like a cloud.

¹⁶“Now my life is almost over;

my days are full of suffering.

¹⁷At night my bones ache;

gnawing pains never stop.

¹⁸In his great power God grabs hold of my clothing

and chokes me with the collar of my coat.

¹⁹He throws me into the mud,

and I become like dirt and ashes.

²⁰“I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer;

I stand up, but you just look at me.

²¹You have turned on me without mercy;

with your powerful hand you attacked me.

²²You snatched me up and threw me into the wind

and tossed me about in the storm.

²³I know you will bring me down to death,

to the place where all living people must go.

²⁴“Surely no one would hurt those who are ruined

when they cry for help in their time of trouble.

²⁵I cried for those who were in trouble;

I have been very sad for poor people.

²⁶But when I hoped for good, only evil came to me;

when I looked for light, darkness came.

²⁷I never stop being upset;

days of suffering are ahead of me.

²⁸I have turned black, but not by the sun.

I stand up in public and cry for help.

²⁹I have become a brother to wild dogs

and a friend to ostriches.

³⁰My skin has become black and peels off,

as my body burns with fever.

³¹My harp is tuned to sing a sad song,

and my flute is tuned to moaning.