Job 30-31
Complete Jewish Bible
30 “But now those younger than I
hold me in derision,
men whose fathers I wouldn’t even
have put with the dogs that guarded my sheep.
2 What use to me was the strength in their hands?
All their vigor had left them.
3 Worn out by want and hunger,
they gnaw the dry ground in the gloom
of waste and desolation.
4 They pluck saltwort and bitter leaves;
these, with broom tree roots, are their food.
5 They are driven away from society,
with men shouting after them as after a thief,
6 to live in gullies and vadis,
in holes in the ground and caves in the rocks.
7 Among the bushes they howl like beasts
and huddle among the nettles,
8 irresponsible nobodies
driven from the land.
9 “Now I have become their song;
yes, I am a byword with them.
10 They loathe me, they stand aloof from me;
they don’t hesitate to spit in my face!
11 For God has loosened my bowstring and humbled me;
they throw off restraint in my presence.
12 At my right the street urchins attack,
pushing me from place to place,
besieging me with their ways of destruction,
13 breaking up my path,
furthering my calamity —
even those who have no one to help them.
14 They move in as through a wide gap;
amid the ruin they roll on in waves.
15 Terrors tumble over me,
chasing my honor away like the wind;
my [hope of] salvation passes like a cloud.
16 “So now my life is ebbing away,
days of grief have seized me.
17 At night pain pierces me to the bone,
so that I never rest.
18 My clothes are disfigured by the force [of my disease];
they choke me like the collar of my coat.
19 [God] has thrown me into the mud;
I have become like dust and ashes.
20 “I call out to you [God], but you don’t answer me;
I stand up to plead, but you just look at me.
21 You have turned cruelly against me;
with your powerful hand you keep persecuting me.
22 You snatch me up on the wind and make me ride it;
you toss me about in the tempest.
23 For I know that you will bring me to death,
the house assigned to everyone living.
24 “Surely [God] wouldn’t strike at a ruin,
if in one’s calamity one cried out to him for help.
25 Didn’t I weep for those who were in trouble?
Didn’t I grieve for the needy?
26 Yet when I hoped for good, what came was bad;
when I expected light, what came was darkness.
27 My insides are in turmoil; they can’t find rest;
days of misery confront me.
28 I go about in sunless gloom,
I rise in the assembly and cry for help.
29 I have become a brother to jackals
and a companion of ostriches.
30 My skin is black and falling off me,
and my bones are burning with heat.
31 So my lyre is tuned for mourning,
my pipe to the voice of those who weep.
31 “I made a covenant with my eyes
not to let them lust after any girl.
2 “What share does God give from above?
What is the heritage from Shaddai on high?
3 Isn’t it calamity to the unrighteous?
disaster to those who do evil?
4 Doesn’t he see my ways
and count all my steps?
5 “If I have gone along with falsehood,
if my feet have hurried to deceit;
6 then let me be weighed on an honest scale,
so that God will know my integrity.
7 “If my steps have wandered from the way,
if my heart has followed my eyes,
if the least dirt has stuck to my hands;
8 then let me sow and someone else eat,
let what grows from my fields be uprooted.
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 man,
and let others kneel on her.
11 For that would be a heinous act,
a criminal offense,
12 a fire that would burn to the depths of Abaddon,
uprooting all I produce.
13 “If I ever rejected my slave or slave-girl’s cause,
when they brought legal action against me;
14 then what would I do if God stood up?
Were he to intervene, what answer could I give?
15 Didn’t he who made me in the womb make them too?
Didn’t the same one shape us both before our birth?
16 “If I held back anything needed by the poor
or made a widow’s eye grow dim [with tears],
17 or ate my portion of food by myself,
without letting the orphan eat any of it —
18 No! From my youth he grew up
with me as if with a father,
and I have been her guide
from my mother’s womb! —
19 or if I saw a traveler needing clothing,
someone in need who had no covering,
20 who didn’t bless me from his heart
for being warmed with the fleece from my sheep,
21 or if I lifted my hand against an orphan,
knowing that no one would dare charge me in court;
22 then let my arm fall from its socket,
and let my forearm be broken at the elbow!
23 For calamity from God has always terrified me;
before his majesty I could never do a thing [like that].
24 “If I made gold my hope,
if I said to fine gold, ‘You are my security,’
25 if I took joy in my great wealth,
in my having acquired so much;
26 or if, on seeing the shining sun
or the full moon as it moved through the sky,
27 my heart was secretly seduced,
so that I would wave them a kiss with my hand;
28 then this too would be a criminal offense,
for I would have been lying to God on high.
29 “Did I rejoice at the destruction of him who hated me?
Was I filled with glee when disaster overtook him?
30 No, I did not allow my mouth to sin
by asking for his life with a curse.
31 “Was there anyone in my tent who didn’t say,
‘No one can find a single person
whom he has not filled with his meat’?
32 No stranger had to sleep in the street;
I kept my house open to the traveler.
33 “If I concealed my sins, as most people do,
by hiding my wrongdoing in my heart,
34 from fear of general gossip
or dread of some family’s contempt.
keeping silent and not going outdoors —
35 I wish I had someone who would listen to me!
Here is my signature; let Shaddai answer me!
I wish I had the indictment my adversary has written!
36 I would carry it on my shoulder;
I would bind it on me like a crown.
37 I would declare to him every one of my steps;
I would approach him like a prince.
38 “If my land cried out against me,
if its furrows wept together,
39 if I ate its produce without paying
or made its owners despair;
40 then let thistles grow instead of wheat
and noxious weeds instead of barley!
“The words of Iyov are finished.”
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
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