Reading 27 – Job’s Final Speech Part II (Job 30:1-31:40)

Summary

The nobodies I helped now taunt me. (30:1-14)

Pach’ad Yitshaq[1] is now my terror. (30:15-31)

My fear of God made me lead a righteous life. (31:1-34)

If I have done wrong then may God curse me! (31:35-40)

Text

The nobodies I helped now taunt me. (30:1-14)

30:1 “But now they mock me, those who are younger than I,

whose fathers I disdained too much

to put with my sheep dogs.

30:2 Moreover, the strength of their hands –

what use was it to me?

Men whose strength had perished;

30:3 gaunt with want and hunger,

they would gnaw the parched land,[2]

in former time desolate and waste.

30:4 By the brush they would gather herbs from the salt marshes,

and the root of the broom tree was their food.

30:5 They were banished from the community –

people shouted at them

like they would shout at thieves –

30:6 so that they had to live

in the dry stream beds,

in the holes of the ground, and among the rocks.

30:7 They brayed like animals among the bushes

and were huddled together under the nettles.

30:8 Sons of senseless and nameless people,

they were driven out of the land with whips.

30:9 “And now I have become their taunt song;

I have become a byword among them.

30:10 They detest me and maintain their distance;

they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

30:11 Because God has untied my tent cord and afflicted me,

people throw off all restraint in my presence.

30:12 On my right the young rabble rise up;

they drive me from place to place,

and build up siege ramps against me.

30:13 They destroy my path;

they succeed in destroying me

without anyone assisting them.

30:14 They come in as through a wide breach;

amid the crash they come rolling in.

Pach’ad Yitshaq[3] is now my terror. (30:15-31)

30:15 Terrors are turned loose on me;

they drive away my honor like the wind,

and like a cloud my deliverance has passed away.

30:16 “And now my soul pours itself out within me;

days of suffering take hold of me.

30:17 Night pierces my bones;

my gnawing pains never cease.

30:18 With great power God grasps my clothing;

he binds me like the collar of my tunic.

30:19 He has flung me into the mud,

and I have come to resemble dust and ashes.

30:20 I cry out to you, but you do not answer me;

I stand up, and you only look at me.

30:21 You have become cruel to me;

with the strength of your hand you attack me.

30:22 You pick me up on the wind and make me ride on it;

you toss me about in the storm.

30:23 I know that you are bringing me to death,

to the meeting place for all the living.

30:24 “Surely one does not stretch out his hand

against a broken man

when he cries for help in his distress.

30:25 Have I not wept for the unfortunate?

Was not my soul grieved for the poor?

30:26 But when I hoped for good, trouble came;

when I expected light, then darkness came.

30:27 My heart is in turmoil unceasingly;

the days of my affliction confront me.

30:28 I go about blackened, but not by the sun;

in the assembly I stand up and cry for help.

30:29 I have become a brother to jackals

and a companion of ostriches.

30:30 My skin has turned dark on me;

my body is hot with fever.

30:31 My harp is used for mourning

and my flute for the sound of weeping.

My fear of God made me lead a righteous life. (31:1-34)

31:1 “I made a covenant with my eyes;

how then could I entertain thoughts against a virgin?

31:2 What then would be one’s lot from God above,

one’s heritage from the Almighty on high?

31:3 Is it not misfortune for the unjust,

and disaster for those who work iniquity?

31:4 Does he not see my ways

and count all my steps?

31:5 If I have walked in falsehood,

and if my foot has hastened to deceit –

31:6 let him weigh me with honest scales;

then God will discover my integrity.

31:7 If my footsteps have strayed from the way,

if my heart has gone after my eyes,

or if anything has defiled my hands,

31:8 then let me sow and let another eat,

and let my crops be uprooted.

31:9 If my heart has been enticed by a woman,

and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door,

31:10 then let my wife turn the millstone for another man,

and may other men have sexual relations with her.

31:11 For I would have committed a shameful act,

an iniquity to be judged.

31:12 For it is a fire that devours even to Destruction,

and it would uproot all my harvest.

31:13 “If I have disregarded the right of my male servants

or my female servants when they disputed with me,

31:14 then what will I do when God confronts me in judgment;

when he intervenes,

how will I respond to him?

31:15 Did not the one who made me in the womb make them?

Did not the same one form us in the womb?

31:16 If I have refused to give the poor what they desired,

or caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

31:17 If I ate my morsel of bread myself,

and did not share any of it with orphans –

31:18 but from my youth I raised the orphan like a father,

and from my mother’s womb

I guided the widow!

31:19 If I have seen anyone about to perish for lack of clothing,

or a poor man without a coat,

31:20 whose heart did not bless me

as he warmed himself with the fleece of my sheep,

31:21 if I have raised my hand to vote against the orphan,

when I saw my support in the court,

31:22 then let my arm fall from the shoulder,

let my arm be broken off at the socket.

31:23 For the calamity from God was a terror to me,

and by reason of his majesty I was powerless.

31:24 “If I have put my confidence in gold

or said to pure gold,

‘You are my security!’

31:25 if I have rejoiced because of the extent of my wealth,

or because of the great wealth my hand had gained,

31:26 if I looked at the sun when it was shining,

and the moon advancing as a precious thing,

31:27 so that my heart was secretly enticed,

and my hand threw them a kiss from my mouth,

31:28 then this also would be iniquity to be judged,

for I would have been false to God above.

31:29 If I have rejoiced over the misfortune of my enemy

or exulted because calamity found him –

31:30 I have not even permitted my mouth to sin

by asking for his life through a curse –

31:31 if the members of my household have never said,

‘If only there were someone

who has not been satisfied from Job’s meat!’ –

31:32 But no stranger had to spend the night outside,

for I opened my doors to the traveler –

31:33 if I have covered my transgressions as men do,

by hiding iniquity in my heart,

31:34 because I was terrified of the great multitude,

and the contempt of families terrified me,

so that I remained silent

and would not go outdoors – [4]

If I have done wrong then may God curse me! (31:35-40)

31:35 “If only I had someone to hear me!

Here is my signature –

let the Almighty answer me!

If only I had an indictment

that my accuser had written.

31:36 Surely I would wear it proudly on my shoulder,

I would bind it on me like a crown;

31:37 I would give him an accounting of my steps;

like a prince I would approach him.

31:38 “If my land cried out against me

and all its furrows wept together,

31:39 if I have eaten its produce without paying,

or caused the death of its owners,

31:40 then let thorns sprout up in place of wheat,

and in place of barley, weeds!”

The words of Job are ended.

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[1] Isaac’s Terror or Dread; a name for God found at Genesis 31:42, 53

[2] Sudanese refugees fleeing Darfur (April 2004)

[3] Isaac’s Terror or Dread; a name for God found at Genesis 31:42, 53

[4] Picture of a small boy captured during the April-May 1943 Warsaw Revolt