Through My Bible Yr 01 – August 09

Through My Bible – August 09

Job 30 – 31 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Job 30

¹ But those far younger than I am now laugh at me—
men whose fathers I would not have allowed
    to serve with my sheepdogs.
² The strength of their hands was useless to me. ^[1]
Their vigor had failed.
³ Emaciated from famine and hunger,
they gnawed desert plants in the desolate wasteland.
⁴ They picked marsh plants among the brush,
and their food was the roots of broom bushes.
⁵ They were driven out of the community.
People shouted at them like thieves.
⁶ They lived in dry streambeds,
in holes among the dust and the rocks.
⁷ They brayed between shrubs,
and they huddled under thorn bushes.
⁸ Sons of fools and nameless nobodies,
they were driven out of the land with whips.

⁹ But now I am the target of their mocking songs,
and my name has become proverbial as a term of scorn.
¹⁰ They despise me and keep their distance.
They do not hesitate to spit in my face.

¹¹ God has unhooked my bowstring, ^[2]
and he has afflicted me,
so they throw off all restraint in my presence.
¹² At my right hand this rabble rises up like a mob.
They trip my feet.
They besiege me with their plans to destroy me.
¹³ They cut off my path to escape.
They try to benefit from my destruction.
They need no one to help them.
¹⁴ They pour through the breach in my wall.
They roll in through the ruins.
¹⁵ Terrors are unleashed against me.
My prestige is blown away by the wind.
My security has passed by like a cloud.
¹⁶ Now my soul is being poured out within me.
Days of suffering have seized me.
¹⁷ Night pierces my bones with pain.
The pain gnawing at me never stops.
¹⁸ God tugs violently at my clothing.
He chokes me like the collar of my robe.
¹⁹ He has thrown me into the mud,
and I have become like dust and ashes.
²⁰ I cry to you for help, but you do not answer me.
Whenever I stand up, you pay no attention to me. ^[3]
21 You have become cruel to me.
With a strong hand you assault me.
²² You lift me up with the wind, and it carries me away.
You scatter me in the raging storm.
²³ Yes, I know that you are bringing me down to death,
to the home where all the living meet.

²⁴ Will he really stretch out his hand against a pile of ruins,
when the ruined man screams for help? ^[4]
25 Didn’t I weep for those who live through hard days?
Didn’t my soul grieve for the needy?
²⁶ But when I waited for good, evil came.
When I hoped for light, darkness came.
²⁷ My emotions ^[5] are boiling over.
They are never quiet.
Days of suffering confront me.
²⁸ I walk around darkened, but not by the sun.
I stand in the assembly and cry for help.
²⁹ I have become a brother to jackals,
a companion for screeching ostriches.
³⁰ My skin turns black and falls off,
and my bones burn with fever.
³¹ My lyre plays only sad songs.
My flute accompanies only the sound of weeping.

Job 31

¹ I have made a covenant with my eyes.
How then could I stare at a virgin with desire?
² If I did, what reward would I receive from God above?
What inheritance from the Almighty on high?
³ Is not ruin the reward for the wicked,
and misfortune the reward for evildoers?
⁴ But doesn’t God see my ways?
Doesn’t he count my every step?
⁵ Have I walked with deceit and lies?
Has my foot hurried to pursue fraud?
⁶ If God weighs me on an honest scale,
he will know my integrity.

⁷ If my footsteps have slipped off the path,
if my heart has pursued things desired by my eyes,
if anything corrupt has stuck to my palms,
⁸ then let someone else eat what I have sown.
Let my crops be uprooted.

⁹ If my heart has been enticed by a woman,
if I have lurked at my neighbor’s doorway,
¹⁰ let my wife grind for another,
and let other men crouch down over her.
¹¹ For that would have been shameful behavior,
a guilty deed worthy of judgment.
¹² There is a fire that consumes all the way to hell, ^[6]
that would completely burn up all my harvest.

¹³ If I have denied justice to my male servants
or to my female servants in their disputes with me,
¹⁴ then what would I do when God arises,
when he comes to call me to account?
How could I respond to him?
¹⁵ Didn’t he who made me in the womb also make my servant?
Didn’t the same God fashion us both in the womb?

¹⁶ If I have withheld from the poor what they desired,
if I have darkened the eyes of the widow,
¹⁷ if I have eaten my food all by myself
and have not shared it with the fatherless—
¹⁸ no, from the time of my youth, the fatherless child grew up with me,
and I was like a father to him.
From the womb of my mother I guided the widow.
¹⁹ If I saw anyone perishing from lack of clothing,
if the needy had nothing to wear,
²⁰ his very body blessed me,
    as he was warmed by the wool from my sheep.

²¹ If I raised my hand against the fatherless child,
    because I had influence in the court at the city gate,
²² then let my shoulder be knocked out of its socket,
and let my upper arm be broken.
²³ Now doom from God terrifies me,
and I cannot endure his majesty.

²⁴ If I placed my confidence in gold,
and if I said to pure gold, “You are my security,”
²⁵ if I rejoiced because I was so rich
and because my hand had obtained so much,
²⁶ if I saw the shining sun and the moon moving in its splendor,
²⁷ if my heart was gullible enough to worship them in secret,
and I kissed my hand to honor them,
²⁸ that would have made me guilty and deserving of judgment,
for I would have denied God above.

²⁹ If I rejoiced at the misfortune of someone who hates me,
or I was thrilled because trouble caught up with him—
³⁰ but no, I have not savored sin by asking for a curse on his life.
³¹ Did the men in my tent ever have to say
    that there was someone who had not been filled with meat from Job? ^[7]
32 No stranger ever had to spend the night outside.
I have opened my door to the traveler.

³³ If I had covered up my sin like Adam, ^[8]
and I had hidden my guilt in my heart,
³⁴ because I was frightened of the crowd,
and the contempt of the clans filled me with terror,
so that I was silent and I did not go out of a door—

³⁵ Oh how I wish I had someone to listen to me!
Look, here is my seal on my testimony.
Let the Almighty answer me!
Let me see the written indictment from my accuser.
³⁶ I would lift it up on my shoulder.
I would place it on my head as a crown.
³⁷ I would account to him for every single step.
I would approach him like the chief of a tribe.
³⁸ If my soil cries out against me,
and its furrows weep because of me,
³⁹ if I have consumed its wealth without paying for it,
if I have caused the death of its owners,
⁴⁰ then let a thorn bush grow up instead of wheat,
and stinkweeds instead of barley.

Footnotes

1. Job 30:2 The pronouns their and they in verses 2 to 7 may refer either to the men in verse 1, to their fathers, or to both. The tenses, therefore, could be either past or present.
2. Job 30:11 Or tent cord
3. Job 30:20 The translation follows some Hebrew manuscripts and ancient versions, as well as the parallelism. Other manuscripts read you direct your attention against me.
4. Job 30:24 This verse is difficult.
5. Job 30:27 Literally my intestines
6. Job 31:12 Or destruction. The Hebrew reads abaddon.
7. Job 31:31 The meaning of this verse is uncertain.
8. Job 31:33 Or as people do