B. Job's Second Monologue 29:1-31:40
Job 29:1
Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,Job 29:2
Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;Job 29:3
When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;Job 29:4
As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;Job 29:5
When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;Job 29:6
When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;Job 29:7
When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!Job 29:8
The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up.Job 29:9
The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.Job 29:10
The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.Job 29:11
When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:Job 29:12
Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.Job 29:13
The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.Job 29:14
I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.Job 29:15
I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.Job 29:16
I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.Job 29:17
And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.Job 29:18
Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.Job 29:19
My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.Job 29:20
My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.Job 29:21
Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.Job 29:22
After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.Job 29:23
And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.Job 29:24
If I laughed on them, they believed it not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down.Job 29:25
I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners.Job 30:1
But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.Job 30:2
Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?Job 30:3
For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.Job 30:4
Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.Job 30:5
They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;)Job 30:6
To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.Job 30:7
Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.Job 30:8
They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.Job 30:9
And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.Job 30:10
They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.Job 30:11
Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me.Job 30:12
Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.Job 30:13
They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper.Job 30:14
They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.Job 30:15
Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.Job 30:16
And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.Job 30:17
My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.Job 30:18
By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.Job 30:19
He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.Job 30:20
I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not.Job 30:21
Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me.Job 30:22
Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance.Job 30:23
For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.Job 30:24
Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.Job 30:25
Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?Job 30:26
When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.Job 30:27
My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.Job 30:28
I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.Job 30:29
I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.Job 30:30
My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.Job 30:31
My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.Job 31:1
I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?Job 31:2
For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?Job 31:3
Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?Job 31:4
Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?Job 31:5
If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;Job 31:6
Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.Job 31:7
If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands;Job 31:8
Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.Job 31:9
If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door;Job 31:10
Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.Job 31:11
For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.Job 31:12
For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.Job 31:13
If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me;Job 31:14
What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?Job 31:15
Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?Job 31:16
If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;Job 31:17
Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;Job 31:18
(For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;)Job 31:19
If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;Job 31:20
If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;Job 31:21
If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate:Job 31:22
Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.Job 31:23
For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.Job 31:24
If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;Job 31:25
If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much;Job 31:26
If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;Job 31:27
And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:Job 31:28
This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.Job 31:29
If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:Job 31:30
Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.Job 31:31
If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.Job 31:32
The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller.Job 31:33
If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:Job 31:34
Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?Job 31:35
Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book.Job 31:36
Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me.Job 31:37
I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.Job 31:38
If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;Job 31:39
If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:Job 31:40
Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.