Moff JOS 1 CHR 2 CHR EZRA NEH EST JOB PSA PROV ECC SNG JER LAM EZE DAN HOS JOEL AMOS OBA YNA MIC NAH HAB ZEP HAG ZEC MAL MAT MARK LUKE YHN ACTs ROM 1 COR 2 COR GAL EPH PHP COL 1 TH 2 TH 1 TIM 2 TIM TIT PHM HEB YAC 1 PET 2 PET 1 YHN 2 YHN 3 YHN YUD REV

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Moff JOB Chapter 30

◄ JOB 30 ► ║ ═ ©

and their vital strength is gone.

Gaunt with hunger and with want,

they gnaw herbs in the wold,

gathering saltwort under bushes,

using broom-roots for their fuel.

They grope in waste and desolate places,

driven from the haunts of men--

the hue and cry after them, like thieves!

They live in dark ravines,

in caves and rocks,

grunting among the bushes,

coupling under the scrub,

brainless creatures and base-born,

routed out of the country.

Some have to go bare, sy A unclothed,

hungry while they are harvesting,

pressing the oil between the 11 rows of olives,

thirsty while they crush wine from grapes.

Others evade the daylight,

caring not for the ways of God,

refusing to pursue his paths.

The murderer rises in the dark,

to kill poor folk and helpless;

The groan of victims rises from the town,

and wounded men cry out--

but God pays no heed to the crime.

The adulterer watches for the twilight;

he muffles up his face,

and mutters, ‘Not a soul will see me!’

The thief prowls in the night,

and breaks into houses in the dark;

thieves keep themselves shut up during the day,

they all detest the light;

they choose the midnight as their time,

they are familiar with the ways of darkness.

[[He is swept off by the flood,

a curse lies on his property;

no foot turns to his vineyard,

ruined by drought and heat,

flooded with melting snow.

The streets of his native place forget him,

his greatness is no more remembered,

he is uprooted like a rotten tree,

he who ill-treats the widow,

and pities not her children.]]

Yet God lets them remain alive and strong;

they rise, though they despaired of life;

He lets them rest in safety,

he watches over them!

[[Have patience! they will soon be gone,

brought low and bundled off like all the rest,

lopped like the ears of com.]]

Who can deny it? who can prove I lie,

and show that what I urge is idle talk?”

25 Then Bildad the Shuhite * answered:

“What a help you are to poor God!

What a support to his failing powers!

What wise directions you can give to him,

out of your ample stores of knowledge!

Who helped you to such eloquence?

Who was it that inspired you?

He wields a dread authority,

he keeps the peace within high heaven.

His armies, who can number them?

Whom cannot he surprise and seize?

Then how can man be just before God?

How can a mortal man be pure?

To him the very moon is not unsullied,

the very stars are stained!

How much more that mere maggot, man,

that worm, a mortal man?

Before him the primaeval giants writhe,

under the ocean in their prison;

the underworld lies open to his eyes,

the nether regions are unveiled.

The northern skies he spreads o’er empty space,

and hangs the earth on nothing;

he wraps up water in his clouds,

and the clouds burst not under it;

he veils the face of the full moon,

spreading his cloud over it.

The dome of heaven he arched over the deep,

bounding the darkness from the light;

then swayed the pillars of the sky,

appalled at the thunder of his rebuke;

by his power he quelled the sea,

and by his wisdom he laid low the Dragon;

by his breath the skies were cleared,

and his hand maimed the swift cloud-monster.

And all this is the mere fringe of his force,

the faintest whisper we can hear of him!

Who knows then the full thunder of his power?”

27 Then Eyob again replied:

“As God lives, who has wronged me,

as the Almighty lives, who has embittered me,

I swear I speak the truth,

no lie upon my lips,

when I maintain (by God!) that you are wrong,

when I assert that I am innocent!

For I am sound and sane;

God’s breath is in me.

I hold unflinching to my innocence;

not for one hour need I reproach myself.

• • • • •

You have all seen this for yourselves;

then why vapour so vainly?”

7 Zophar the Minsean replied:

“May my worst enemy fare like the wicked,

may my foe die the death of the unjust!

For what hope has a godless man,

when God demands his soul?

Will God ever listen to his cry,

when woe befalls him?

Will he obtain his wish from 10 the Almighty?

Will the Almighty heed him when he calls?

I can show you how God’s n power works,

I will disclose the dealings of the Almighty.

Here is what God awards an 13 evil man,

what the Almighty bestows upon a tyrant:

if his children grow up, some fall by the sword,

some starve;

his sons are victims of the plague,

their widows cannot wail for them;

he may store silver up like dust,

and prepare robes abundant as the clay;

he may prepare them, but the just shall wear them,

and good men shall divide his silver;

the house he builds is like a spider’s,

flimsy as a watchman’s shelter.

He lies down rich--it is the end!

he opens his eyes, to find that all is over!

Terrors seize him in the day,

a tempest carries him off by night;

an east wind whirls him clean away,

sweeping him from his site.

God pelts him without pity,

though fain he would escape;

God openly derides him,

and hisses scorn at him from heaven.

Where is wisdom to be ey found?

And knowledge, where does it abound?

For silver there are mines,

and places for refining gold;

iron from the earth is taken,

copper smelted out of stones.

Men searched the darkness to its depth,

and in the pitchy gloom for stones they grope;

they run a shaft down, far from daylight,

they hang below, swinging upon a rope.

A harvest comes out of the earth below,

when the miner blasts it underground;

sapphires lie among its stones,

and he picks up lumps of gold;

he falls to work upon the flinty rocks,

he turns hills up by the roots;

he drills a channel in the cliff,

to draw the water off;

he delves for what is rare,

and hidden gems he will unbare.

But where is wisdom to be found?

And knowledge, where does it abound?

No vulture knows the path to it,

no hawk’s eye ever spies it,

no proud beast ever paces it,

no lion moves along it;

not a man knows that path,

in the land of the living none finds it.

The deep says, ‘Not in me!’

The sea says, ‘Not in me!’

No solid gold can purchase wisdom,

no silver can be paid for her;

there is no price for her in gold of Ophir,

in precious beryls or in sapphires;

gold and glass are no match for her,

jewels of gold are no exchange for her;

coral and crystal are not to be mentioned;

wisdom is more precious even than rubies;

the Ethiopian chrysolite is not equal to her,

no weight of gold can be paid down for her.

Where is wisdom to be found?

And knowledge, where does it abound?

For she is hid from every living creature,

even from the eyes of a wild bird.

Death and the underworld declare,

‘We have only heard of her.’

God knows where she is,

God only is aware of her abode;

for he saw to the very ends of earth,

he scanned the whole world under heaven,

when he fixed the forces of the wind,

and measured out the waters,

when he made rules for the rain,

and paths for the lightning flash;

he saw wisdom then, and studied her,

worked with her and proved her.

And he declares to man, ‘For you

to revere me is your wisdom,

to shun evil--that is knowledge!” ’

29 Then Eyob again replied:

“Oh to be as once I was in months gone by,

in the days when God was guarding me,

when his lamp shone over my head,

and I could walk by his light through the dark!

Oh to be as I once was in my prime,

when God was kindly sheltering my home,

when the Almighty still was with me,

when my children were about me,

when my farms were a-flow with milk,

and oil gushed from my oil- press!

When I went to the city-council,

and sat down among the burghers,

the youths fell back before me,

seniors rose to their feet,

the nobles ceased to talk,

and held their peace,

the magnates became mute,

and were struck dumb.

Men listened to me carefully,

q2 and silently awaited my advice;

my words fell fresh on them like showers,

they waited for me as for rain,

like the dry clods in spring for rain,

and when I spoke, no one would speak again.

When I smiled, it encouraged them,

my cheerful gaze put heart into the hopeless;

I fixed their policy, I presided there,

commanding as a monarch among men.

Men blessed me when they heard of me,

men owned my worth who saw me;

for I delivered poor men when they cried,

the fatherless and helpless;

perishing people would give me their blessing,

I gladdened the heart of the widow;

I wore the robe of charity and 14 kindness,

my justice was a tunic and a turban;

I was eyes to the blind,

I was feet to the lame,

I was a father to protect the poor,

taking their case up, though it was not mine;

I broke the jaws of any who oppressed,

and forced their fangs to drop their prey.

So I thought, ‘I shall grow old among my brood,

my days shall be like sand for number;

my roots reach to the water,

the dew lies on my branches all the night;

fresh honours fall to me,

I grow in might.’

And now my juniors mock me

men whose sires I would have 1 scorned

to trust with a sheep-dog’s task!

God leaves me to these impudent lads,

he throws me to malicious men;

my foes glare on me grimly,

panting with open mouth,

they strike me on the cheek, insulting me,

banding together to attack me.

I am the butt of their songs,

I am a byword among them;

they loathe me, hold aloof from me,

and at the sight of me spit in disgust.

They have unstrung me and undone me,

with their unbridled onset;

a rabble rises against me,

they set on to besiege me,

they cut off my escape,

determined to destroy me;

and, loose to all restraints,

they pour in at the open breach,

rushing upon me through the ruined wall.

Thus terrors are let loose on me;

my happiness is blown away,

and like a cloud my welfare disappears.

So now my soul within me melts with sorrow,

misery masters me;

the bones are rotting in my body,

the pain that gnaws me never slumbers;

my skin is wrinkled with the fell disease,

drawn tight over my limbs.

God has plunged me in the mud,

I am reduced to dust and ashes.

Thou wilt not answer when I cry,

thou hast ceased to care for me;

thou hast turned cruel to me,

thou layest thy heavy lash on me,

thou tossest me before the wind,

I break up under the blast;

for I know thou wilt house me with death,

where all the living have to dwell.

And yet a sinking man will stretch his hand,

crying for help in his calamity.

Will not a man in trouble weep?

Is not the soul of the forlorn distressed?

I hoped for good, and evil came,

I waited for the light, and darkness fell;

my heart is hot and restless,

misery faces me;

I wail, with none to comfort me,

fit company for howling jackals,

for any pack of wolves,

for screaming ostriches.

My skin is peeling off me blackened,

my limbs burn with the fever,

my dances turn to dirges,

my lyrics to laments.

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