Job’s Summary Defense
29 dAnd 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,
3 when ehis lamp shone upon my head,
and by his light I walked through darkness,
4 as I was in my prime,1
when the ffriendship of God was upon my tent,
5 when the Almighty was yet with me,
when my gchildren were all around me,
6 when my steps were washed with hbutter,
and the rock poured out for me istreams of oil!
7 When I went out to the gate of the city,
when I prepared my seat in the square,
8 the young men saw me and withdrew,
and the aged rose and stood;
9 the princes refrained from talking
and jlaid their hand on their mouth;
10 the voice of the nobles was hushed,
and their ktongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
11 When the ear heard, it called me blessed,
and when the eye saw, it approved,
12 lbecause I delivered the poor who cried for help,
and the mfatherless who had none to help him.
13 The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me,
and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.
14 nI oput on righteousness, and it clothed me;
my justice was like a robe and a turban.
15 I was eyes to the blind
and feet to the lame.
16 I was a father to the needy,
and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.
17 I pbroke the qfangs of the unrighteous
and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
18 Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest,
and I shall multiply my days ras the sand,
19 my roots spread out to the waters,
with the dew all night on my branches,
20 my 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.
22 After I spoke they did not speak again,
and my word dropped upon them.
23 They waited for me as for the rain,
and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.
24 I smiled on them when they had no confidence,
and the slight of my face they did not cast down.
25 I chose their way and sat as chief,
and I lived tlike a king among his troops,
like one who comforts mourners.
30 u“But now they laugh at me,
men who are vyounger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
to set with the dogs of my flock.
2 What could I gain from the strength of their hands,
men whose vigor is gone?
3 Through want and hard hunger
they gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation;
4 they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes,
and the roots of the broom tree for their food.1
5 They are driven out from human company;
they shout after them as after a thief.
6 In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell,
in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
7 Among the bushes they bray;
under the wnettles they huddle together.
8 A senseless, a nameless brood,
they have been whipped out of the land.
9 “And now I have become their xsong;
I am a byword to them.
10 They abhor me; they keep aloof from me;
they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.
11 Because God has loosed my ycord and humbled me,
they have cast off restraint2 in my presence.
12 On my right hand the rabble rise;
they push away my feet;
they cast up against me their ways of destruction.
13 They break up my path;
they promote my calamity;
they need no one to help them.
14 As through a wide breach they come;
amid the crash they roll on.
15 Terrors 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 zpoured out within me;
days of affliction have taken hold of me.
17 aThe night racks my bones,
and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.
18 With great force my garment is disfigured;
it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
19 God3 has cast me into the mire,
and I have become like dust and ashes.
20 I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;
I stand, and you only look at me.
21 You have turned cruel to me;
with the might of your hand you bpersecute me.
22 cYou lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it,
and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.
23 For I know that you will 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?4
25 dDid not I weep for him whose day was hard?
Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
26 But ewhen I hoped for good, evil came,
and when I fwaited for light, darkness came.
27 My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;
days of affliction come to meet me.
28 I ggo about darkened, but not by the sun;
I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
29 I am a brother of hjackals
and a companion of ostriches.
30 iMy skin turns jblack and falls from me,
and my kbones burn with heat.
31 My lyre is turned lto mourning,
and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.
Job’s Final Appeal
31 “I have made a covenant with my meyes;
how then could I ngaze at a virgin?
2 What would be my portion from God above
and my heritage from the Almighty on high?
3 Is not calamity for the unrighteous,
and disaster for the workers of iniquity?
4 Does not he see my ways
and onumber all my steps?
5 “If I have walked with falsehood
and my foot has hastened to deceit;
6 (Let me be pweighed in a just balance,
and let God know my qintegrity!)
7 if rmy step has turned aside from the way
and my heart has gone after my eyes,
and if any spot has stuck to my hands,
8 then slet me sow, and another eat,
and let what grows for me1 be rooted out.
9 “If my heart has been enticed toward a woman,
and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door,
10 then let my wife grind for another,
and let others bow down on her.
11 For that would be a heinous crime;
that would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges;
12 for that would be a tfire that consumes as far as Abaddon,
and it would burn to the root all my increase.
13 “If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant,
when they brought a complaint against me,
14 what then shall I do when God rises up?
When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him?
15 uDid not he who made me in the womb make him?
vAnd did not one fashion us in the womb?
16 “If I have withheld anything that the poor desired,
or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
17 or have eaten my morsel alone,
and the fatherless has not eaten of it
18 (for from my youth the fatherless2 grew up with me as with a father,
and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow3),
19 if I have seen anyone perish for wlack of clothing,
or the needy without covering,
20 if his body has not blessed me,4
and if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep,
21 if I have raised my hand against the fatherless,
because I saw my help in the gate,
22 then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder,
and let my arm be xbroken from its socket.
23 For I was in terror of calamity from God,
and I could not have faced his ymajesty.
24 “If I have made gold my trust
or called fine gold my zconfidence,
25 if I have rejoiced because my wealth was abundant
or because my hand had found much,
26 if I have looked at the asun5 when it shone,
or the moon moving in splendor,
27 and my heart has been secretly enticed,
and my mouth has kissed my hand,
28 this also would be an iniquity bto be punished by the judges,
for I would have been false to God above.
29 “If I have crejoiced at the ruin of him who hated me,
or exulted when evil overtook him
30 (I have not let my mouth sin
by asking for his life with a dcurse),
31 if the men of my tent have not said,
‘Who is there that has not been filled with his meat?’
32 (the sojourner has not lodged in the street;
eI have opened my doors to the traveler),
33 if I have fconcealed my transgressions as others do6
by hiding my iniquity in my heart,
34 because I stood in great fear of the multitude,
and the contempt of families terrified me,
so that I kept silence, and did not go out of doors—
35 gOh, that I had one to hear me!
(Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!)
Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary!
36 Surely I would carry it on my shoulder;
I would bind it on me as a crown;
37 I would give him an account of all my steps;
like a prince I would approach him.
38 “If my land has cried out against me
and its furrows have wept together,
39 if I have eaten its yield without payment
and made its owners breathe their last,
40 let thorns grow instead of wheat,
and foul weeds instead of barley.”
The words of Job are ended.
Elihu Rebukes Job’s Three Friends
32 So these three men ceased to answer Job, because hhe was righteous in his own eyes. 2 Then iElihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned with anger. He burned with anger at Job because he justified himself jrather than God. 3 kHe burned with anger also at Job’s three friends because they had found no answer, although lthey had declared Job to be in the wrong. 4 Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were older than he. 5 And when Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, he burned with anger.
6 And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said:
“I am myoung in years,
and you are aged;
therefore I was timid and afraid
to declare my opinion to you.
7 I said, ‘Let days speak,
and many years teach wisdom.’
8 But it is nthe spirit in man,
the breath of the Almighty, that makes him ounderstand.
9 It is not the old1 who are wise,
nor the aged who understand what is right.
10 Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me;
let me also declare my opinion.’
11 “Behold, I waited for your words,
I listened for your wise sayings,
while you searched out what to say.
12 I gave you my attention,
and, behold, there was none among you who refuted Job
or who answered his words.
13 pBeware lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom;
God may vanquish him, not a man.’
14 He has not directed his words against me,
and I will not answer him with your speeches.
15 “They are dismayed; they answer no more;
they have not a word to say.
16 And shall I wait, because they do not speak,
because they stand there, and answer no more?
17 I also will answer with my share;
I also will declare my opinion.
18 For I am full of words;
the spirit within me constrains me.
19 Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent;
like new wineskins ready to burst.
20 I must speak, that I may find relief;
I must open my lips and answer.
21 I will not qshow partiality to any man
or use flattery toward any person.
22 For I do not know how to flatter,
else my Maker would soon take me away.
Elihu Rebukes Job
33 “But now, hear my speech, O Job,
and listen to all my words.
2 Behold, I open my mouth;
the tongue in my mouth speaks.
3 My words declare the uprightness of my heart,
and what my lips know they speak sincerely.
4 rThe Spirit of God has made me,
and the sbreath of the Almighty gives me life.
5 Answer me, if you can;
set your words in order before me; take your stand.
6 Behold, I am toward God as you are;
I too was pinched off from a piece of tclay.
7 Behold, uno fear of me need terrify you;
my pressure will not be heavy upon you.
8 “Surely you have spoken in my ears,
and I have heard the sound of your words.
9 You say, v‘I am pure, without transgression;
I am clean, and there is no iniquity in me.
10 Behold, he finds occasions against me,
he wcounts me as his enemy,
11 xhe puts my feet in the stocks
and watches all my paths.’
12 “Behold, yin this you are not right. I will answer you,
for God is greater than man.
13 Why do you zcontend against him,
saying, ‘He will answer none of man’s1 words’?2
14 For God speaks in one way,
and in two, though man does not perceive it.
15 aIn a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men,
while they slumber on their beds,
16 then he opens the ears of men
and terrifies3 them with warnings,
17 that he may turn man aside from his deed
and conceal pride from a man;
18 he keeps back his soul bfrom the pit,
his life from perishing by the sword.
19 “Man is also rebuked with cpain on his bed
and with continual strife in his bones,
20 so that dhis life loathes bread,
and his appetite the choicest food.
21 eHis flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen,
and fhis bones that were not seen stick out.
22 His soul draws near the pit,
and his life to those who bring death.
23 If there be for him an angel,
a mediator, one of the thousand,
to declare to man what is right for him,
24 and he is merciful to him, and says,
‘Deliver him from going down into the pit;
I have found a ransom;
25 let his flesh become fresh with youth;
let him return to the days of his youthful vigor’;
26 then man4 prays to God, and he accepts him;
he sees his face with a shout of joy,
and he restores to man his righteousness.
27 He sings before men and says:
‘I sinned and perverted what was right,
and it was not repaid to me.
28 He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit,
and my life shall look upon the light.’
29 “Behold, God does all these things,
twice, three times, with a man,
30 to bring back his soul from the pit,
that he may be lighted with the glight of life.
31 Pay attention, O Job, listen to me;
be silent, and I will speak.
32 If you have any words, answer me;
speak, for I desire to justify you.
33 If not, listen to me;
hbe silent, and I will teach you wisdom.”
