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29Job 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 over my head, and by his light I walked through darkness; ⁴when I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent; ⁵when the Almighty was still with me, when my children were around 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 took my seat in the square, ⁸the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose up and stood; ⁹the nobles refrained from talking, and laid their hands on their mouths; ¹⁰the voices of princes were hushed, and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths. ¹¹When the ear heard, it commended me, and when the eye saw, it approved; ¹²because I delivered the poor who cried, and the orphan who had 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 turban. ¹⁵I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. ¹⁶I was a father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger. ¹⁷I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made them drop their prey from their teeth.

¹⁸Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days like the phoenix; ¹⁹my roots spread out to the waters, with the dew all night on my branches; ²⁰my glory was fresh with me, and my bow ever new in my hand.’ ²¹“They 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 like dew. ²³They waited for me as for the rain; 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 extinguish. ²⁵I chose their way, and sat as chief, and I lived like a king among his troops, like one who comforts mourners.

30“But now they make sport of me, those 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? All their 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 broom. ⁵They are driven out from society; people shout after them as after a thief. ⁶In the gullies of wadis they must live, in holes in the ground, and in the rocks. ⁷Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they huddle together. ⁸A senseless, disreputable brood, they have been whipped out of the land. ⁹“And now they mock me in 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 bowstring and humbled me, they have cast off restraint in my presence. ¹²On my right hand the rabble rise up; they send me sprawling, and build roads for my ruin. 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 he seizes my garment; he grasps me by the collar of my tunic. ¹⁹He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. ²⁰I cry to you and you do not answer me; I stand, and you merely look at me. ²¹You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me. ²²You lift me up on the wind, you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm. ²³I know that you will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living. ²⁴“Surely one does not turn against the needy, when in disaster they cry for help. ²⁵Did I not weep for those 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 inward parts are in turmoil, and are never still; days of affliction come to meet me. ²⁸I go about in sunless gloom; 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.

31“I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I look upon a virgin? ²What would be my portion from God above, and my heritage from the Almighty on high? ³Does not calamity befall the unrighteous, and disaster the workers of iniquity? ⁴Does he not see my ways, and number all my steps? ⁵“If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit— ⁶let me be weighed in a just balance, and let God know my integrity!— ⁷if my step has turned aside from the way, and my heart has followed my eyes, and if any spot has clung to my hands; ⁸then let me sow, and another eat; and let what grows for me be rooted out.

⁹“If my heart has been enticed by a woman, and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door; ¹⁰then let my wife grind for another, and let other men kneel over her. ¹¹For that would be a heinous crime; that would be a criminal offense; ¹²for that would be a fire consuming down to Abaddon, and it would burn to the root all my harvest. ¹³“If I have rejected the cause of my male or female slaves, when they brought a complaint against me; ¹⁴what then shall I do when God rises up? When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him? ¹⁵Did not he who made me in the womb make them? And 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, ¹⁷or have eaten my morsel alone, and the orphan has not eaten from it— ¹⁸for from my youth I reared the orphan like a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow— ¹⁹if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, or a poor person without covering, ²⁰whose loins have not blessed me, and who was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep; ²¹if I have raised my hand against the orphan, because I saw I had supporters at the gate; ²²then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder, and let my arm be broken from its socket. ²³For I was in terror of calamity from God, and I could not have faced his majesty.

²⁴“If I have made gold my trust, or called fine gold my confidence; ²⁵if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, or because my hand had gotten much; ²⁶if I have looked at the sun when it shone, or the moon moving in splendor, ²⁷and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my mouth has kissed my hand; ²⁸this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I should have been false to God above. ²⁹“If I have rejoiced at the ruin of those who hated me, or exulted when evil overtook them— ³⁰I have not let my mouth sin by asking for their lives with a curse— ³¹if those of my tent ever said, ‘O that we might be sated with his flesh!’ — ³²the stranger has not lodged in the street; I have opened my doors to the traveler—

³³if I have concealed my transgressions as others do, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom, ³⁴because 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— ³⁵Oh, 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! ³⁶Surely I would carry it on my shoulder; I would bind it on me like a crown; ³⁷I 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; ³⁹if I have eaten its yield without payment, and caused the death of its owners; ⁴⁰let thorns grow instead of wheat, and foul weeds instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.