Job 29 - 30 — Legacy Standard Bible

Job Continues His Discourse

29And Job continued to lift up his ¹^,^adiscourse and said,

²“Oh that I were as in months gone by,As in the days when God ^akept me,³When ^aHis lamp shone over my head,And ^bby His light I walked through darkness,⁴As I was in ¹the prime of my days,When the ^aintimate counsel with God was over my tent,⁵When ¹the Almighty was yet with me,And my children were around me,⁶When my steps were bathed in ^abutter,And the ^brock poured out for me streams of oil!⁷“When I went out to ^athe gate of the city,When I ¹took my seat in the square,⁸The young men saw me and hid,And the old men arose and stood.⁹“The princes ^astopped talkingAnd ^bput their hands on their mouths;¹⁰The voice of the nobles was ^ahidden away,And their ^btongue clung to their palate.¹¹“For ^athe ear heard, and it called me blessed,And the eye saw, and it gave witness of me,¹²Because I provided escape for ^athe afflicted who cried for help,And the ^borphan who had no helper.¹³“The blessing of the one ^aready to perish came upon me,And I made the ^bwidow’s heart sing for joy.¹⁴“I ^aclothed myself with righteousness, and it clothed me;My justice was like a robe and a turban.¹⁵“I was ^aeyes to the blindAnd feet to the lame.¹⁶“I was a father to ^athe needy,And I searched out the case which I did not know.¹⁷“I ^abroke the fangs of the unjustAnd snatched the prey from his teeth.¹⁸“Then I ¹said, ‘I will breathe my last ²in my nest,And I shall multiply my days as the sand.¹⁹‘My ^aroot is spread out to the waters,And ^bdew lies all night on my branch.²⁰‘My glory is ever new with me,And my ^abow is renewed in my hand.’²¹“To me ^athey listened and waited,And kept silent for my counsel.²²“After my words they did not ^aspeak again,And ^bmy speech dropped on them.²³“They waited for me as for the rain,And opened their mouth as for the ¹late rain.²⁴“I laughed with them as they could not believe it,And the light of my face they did not cast down.²⁵“I chose a way for them and sat as ^atheir head,And dwelt as a king among the troops,As one who ^bcomforted the mourners.30“But now those younger than I ^alaugh at me,Whose fathers I rejected even to put with the dogs of my flock.²“Indeed, what good was the strength of their hands to me?Vigor had perished from them.³“From want and famine they are gaunt,Who gnaw the dry ground by night in destruction and desolation,⁴Who pluck ¹mallow by the bushes,And whose food is the root of the broom tree.⁵“They are driven from the community;They shout against them as against a thief,⁶So that they dwell in the slopes of the ¹valleys,In holes of the dust and of the rocks.⁷“Among the bushes they ¹cry out;Under the nettles they are gathered together.⁸“¹Wicked fools, even ²those without a name,They were scourged from the land.⁹“And now I have become their mocking ^asong;I have even become a ^btaunting word to them.¹⁰“They abhor me and keep a distance from me,And they do not ¹hold back from ^aspitting at my face.¹¹“Because ¹He has loosed ²His ³bowstring and ^aafflicted me,They have thrust aside ^btheir bridle before me.¹²“On the right hand their ¹brood arises;They ^athrust aside my feet ^band build up against me their ways to disaster.¹³“They ^abreak up my path;They profit ¹from my destruction;They have no helper.¹⁴“As through a wide breach they come,¹Amid the storm they roll on.¹⁵“^aTerrors are turned against me;They pursue my nobility as the wind,And my hope for salvation has passed away ^blike a cloud.¹⁶“And now ^amy soul is poured out ¹within me;Days of affliction have seized me.¹⁷“At night it pierces ^amy bones ¹within me,And my gnawing pains take no rest.¹⁸“By a great force my garment is ^adistorted;It seizes me about as the collar of my tunic.¹⁹“He has cast me into the ^amire,And I have become like dust and ashes.²⁰“I ^acry out to You for help, but You do not answer me;I stand up, and You carefully consider how to be against me.²¹“You have ¹become cruel to me;With the might of Your hand You ^ahunted me down.²²“You ^alift me up to the wind and cause me to ride;And You melt me away in a storm.²³“For I know that You ^awill bring me to deathAnd to the ^bhouse of meeting for all living.²⁴“Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,Or, in his upheaval, is there a ^acry for help because of them?²⁵“Have I not ^awept for the ¹one whose life is hard?Was not my soul grieved for ^bthe needy?²⁶“When I ^ahoped for good, then evil came;When I waited for light, ^bthen thick darkness came.²⁷“¹I am boiling ^awithin and cannot be silent;Days of affliction confront me.²⁸“I go about ^adarkened but not by the sun;I stand up in the assembly and ^bcry out for help.²⁹“I have become a brother to ^ajackalsAnd a companion of ostriches.³⁰“My ^askin turns black ¹on me,And my ^bbones burn with ²fever.³¹“Therefore my ^aharp ¹is turned to mourning,And my flute to the sound of those who weep.