Job’s Oath of Integrity before the God Who Sees

Job 29

29:1Job again took up his parable, and said,

29:2“Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me;

29:3when his lamp shone on my head, and by his light I walked through darkness,

29:4as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was in my tent,

29:5when the Almighty was yet with me, and my children were around me,

29:6when my steps were washed with butter, and the rock poured out streams of oil for me,

29:7when I went out to the city gate, when I prepared my seat in the street.

29:8The young men saw me and hid themselves. The aged rose up and stood.

29:9The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.

29:10The voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.

29:11For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me, it commended me,

29:12because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him,

29:13the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

29:14I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was as a robe and a diadem.

29:15I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame.

29:16I was a father to the needy. I researched the cause of him whom I didn’t know.

29:17I broke the jaws of the unrighteous and plucked the prey out of his teeth.

29:18Then I said, ‘I will die in my own house, I will count my days as the sand.

29:19My root is spread out to the waters. The dew lies all night on my branch.

29:20My glory is fresh in me. My bow is renewed in my hand.’

29:21“Men listened to me, waited, and kept silence for my counsel.

29:22After my words they didn’t speak again. My speech fell on them.

29:23They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.

29:24I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They didn’t reject the light of my face.

29:25I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, as one who comforts the mourners.

Job 30

30:1“But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I considered unworthy to put with my sheep dogs.

30:2Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished?

30:3They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.

30:4They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom tree are their food.

30:5They are driven out from among men. They cry after them as after a thief,

30:6so that they live in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

30:7They bray among the bushes. They are gathered together under the nettles.

30:8They are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men. They were flogged out of the land.

30:9“Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.

30:10They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don’t hesitate to spit in my face.

30:11For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have thrown off restraint before me.

30:12On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet. They cast their ways of destruction up against me.

30:13They mar my path. They promote my destruction without anyone’s help.

30:14As through a wide breach they come. They roll themselves in amid the ruin.

30:15Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud.

30:16“Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold of me.

30:17In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.

30:18My garment is disfigured by great force. It binds me about as the collar of my tunic.

30:19He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.

30:20I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me.

30:21You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me.

30:22You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm.

30:23For I know that you will bring me to death, to the house appointed for all living.

30:24“However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?

30:25Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy?

30:26When I looked for good, then evil came. When I waited for light, darkness came.

30:27My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest. Days of affliction have come on me.

30:28I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.

30:29I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.

30:30My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.

30:31Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.

Job 31

31:1“I made a covenant with my eyes; how then should I look lustfully at a young woman?

31:2For what is the portion from God above, and the heritage from the Almighty on high?

31:3Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of iniquity?

31:4Doesn’t he see my ways, and count all my steps?

31:5“If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit

31:6(let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity);

31:7if my step has turned out of the way, if my heart walked after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands,

31:8then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out.

31:9“If my heart has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door,

31:10then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her.

31:11For that would be a heinous crime. Yes, it would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges,

31:12for it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase.

31:13“If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me,

31:14what then will I do when God rises up? When he visits, what will I answer him?

31:15Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him? Didn’t one fashion us in the womb?

31:16“If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

31:17or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless has not eaten of it

31:18(no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, I have guided her from my mother’s womb);

31:19if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering;

31:20if his heart hasn’t blessed me, if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece;

31:21if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw my help in the gate;

31:22then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone.

31:23For calamity from God is a terror to me. Because of his majesty, I can do nothing.

31:24“If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence;’

31:25If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much;

31:26if I have seen the sun when it shined, or the moon moving in splendor,

31:27and my heart has been secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth;

31:28this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, for I would have denied the God who is above.

31:29“If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him

31:30(I have certainly not allowed my mouth to sin by asking his life with a curse);

31:31if the men of my tent have not said, ‘Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?’

31:32(the foreigner has not camped in the street, but I have opened my doors to the traveler);

31:33if like Adam I have covered my transgressions, by hiding my iniquity in my heart,

31:34because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and didn’t go out of the door—

31:35oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment!

31:36Surely I would carry it on my shoulder, and I would bind it to me as a crown.

31:37I would declare to him the number of my steps. I would go near to him like a prince.

31:38If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together;

31:39if I have eaten its fruits without money, or have caused its owners to lose their life,

31:40let briers grow instead of wheat, and stinkweed instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.