Job 28–30

Chapter 28

¹“Surely there is a mine for silver,

and a place for gold which they refine.

²Iron is taken out of the earth,

and copper is smelted from the ore.

³Men put an end to darkness,

and search out to the farthest bound

the ore in gloom and deep darkness.

⁴They open shafts in a valley away from where men live;

they are forgotten by travelers,

they hang afar from men, they swing to and fro.

⁵As for the earth, out of it comes bread;

but underneath it is turned up as by fire.

⁶Its stones are the place of sapphires,

and it has dust of gold.

⁷“That path no bird of prey knows,

and the falcon’s eye has not seen it.

⁸The proud beasts have not trodden it;

the lion has not passed over it.

⁹“Man puts his hand to the flinty rock,

and overturns mountains by the roots.

¹⁰He cuts out channels in the rocks,

and his eye sees every precious thing.

¹¹He binds up the streams so that they do not trickle,

and the thing that is hid he brings forth to light.

¹²“But where shall wisdom be found?

And where is the place of understanding?

¹³Man does not know the way to it,

and it is not found in the land of the living.

¹⁴The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’

and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’

¹⁵It cannot be gotten for gold,

and silver cannot be weighed as its price.

¹⁶It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,

in precious onyx or sapphire.

¹⁷Gold and glass cannot equal it,

nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.

¹⁸No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal;

the price of wisdom is above pearls.

¹⁹The topaz of Ethiopia cannot compare with it,

nor can it be valued in pure gold.

²⁰“Whence then comes wisdom?

And where is the place of understanding?

²¹It is hid from the eyes of all living,

and concealed from the birds of the air.

²²Abaddon and Death say,

‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

²³“God understands the way to it,

and he knows its place.

²⁴For he looks to the ends of the earth,

and sees everything under the heavens.

²⁵When he gave to the wind its weight,

and meted out the waters by measure;

²⁶when he made a decree for the rain,

and a way for the lightning of the thunder;

²⁷then he saw it and declared it;

he established it, and searched it out.

²⁸And he said to man,

‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;

and to depart from evil is understanding.’ ”

Chapter 29

¹And Job again took up his discourse, and said:

²“Oh, that I were as in the months of old,

as in the days when God watched over me;

³when his lamp shone upon my head,

and by his light I walked through darkness;

⁴as I was in my autumn days,

when the friendship of God was upon my tent;

⁵when the Almighty was yet with me,

when my children were about me;

⁶when my steps were washed with milk,

and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!

⁷When I went out to the gate of the city,

when I prepared my seat in the square,

⁸the young men saw me and withdrew,

and the aged rose and stood;

⁹the princes refrained from talking,

and laid their hand on their mouth;

¹⁰the voice of the nobles was hushed,

and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.

¹¹When the ear heard, it called me blessed,

and when the eye saw, it approved;

¹²because I delivered the poor who cried,

and the fatherless who had none to help him.

¹³The blessing of him who was about to perish 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 turban.

¹⁵I was eyes to the blind,

and feet to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the poor,

and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.

¹⁷I broke the fangs of the unrighteous,

and made him drop his prey from his teeth.

¹⁸Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest,

and I shall multiply my days as the sand,

¹⁹my roots spread out to the waters,

with the dew all night on my branches,

²⁰my glory fresh with me,

and my bow ever new in my hand.’

²¹“Men listened to me, and waited,

and kept silence for my counsel.

²²After I spoke they did not speak again,

and my word dropped upon them.

²³They waited for me as for the rain;

and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.

²⁴I smiled on them when they had no confidence;

and the light of my countenance they did not cast down.

²⁵I chose their way, and sat as chief,

and I dwelt like a king among his troops,

like one who comforts mourners.

Chapter 30

¹“But now they make sport of me,

men who are younger than I,

whose fathers I would have disdained

to set with the dogs of my flock.

²What could I gain from the strength of their hands,

men whose vigor is gone?

³Through want and hard hunger

they gnaw the dry and desolate ground;

⁴they pick mallow and the leaves of bushes,

and to warm themselves the roots of the broom.

⁵They are driven out from among men;

they shout after them as after a thief.

⁶In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell,

in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

⁷Among the bushes they bray;

under the nettles they huddle together.

⁸A senseless, a disreputable brood,

they have been whipped out of the land.

⁹“And now I have become their song,

I am a byword to them.

¹⁰They abhor me, they keep aloof from me;

they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.

¹¹Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me,

they have cast off restraint in my presence.

¹²On my right hand the rabble rise,

they drive me forth,

they cast up against me their ways of destruction.

¹³They break up my path,

they promote my calamity;

no one restrains them.

¹⁴As through a wide breach they come;

amid the crash they roll on.

¹⁵Terrors are turned upon me;

my honor is pursued as by the wind,

and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

¹⁶“And now my soul is poured out within me;

days of affliction have taken hold of me.

¹⁷The night racks my bones,

and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.

¹⁸With violence it seizes my garment;

it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.

¹⁹God has cast me into the mire,

and I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰I cry to thee and thou dost not answer me;

I stand, and thou dost not heed me.

²¹Thou hast turned cruel to me;

with the might of thy hand thou dost persecute me.

²²Thou liftest me up on the wind, thou makest me ride on it,

and thou tossest me about in the roar of the storm.

²³Yea, I know that thou wilt bring me to death,

and to the house appointed for all living.

²⁴“Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,

and in his disaster cry for help?

²⁵Did not I weep for him whose day was hard?

Was not my soul grieved for the poor?

²⁶But when I looked for good, evil came;

and when I waited for light, darkness came.

²⁷My heart is in turmoil, and is never still;

days of affliction come to meet me.

²⁸I go about blackened, but not by the sun;

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

²⁹I am a brother of jackals,

and a companion of ostriches.

³⁰My skin turns black and falls from me,

and my bones burn with heat.

³¹My lyre is turned to mourning,

and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.