Job’s Final Speeches

Job 29, 31 (selections)

ca. 1200–332 BCE

Chapter 29

¹Job again took up his theme and said:

²O that I were as in months gone by,

In the days when God watched over me,

³When His lamp shone over my head,

When I walked in the dark by its light,

⁴When I was in my prime,

When God’s company graced my tent,

⁵When Shaddai was still with me,

When my lads surrounded me,

⁶When my feet were bathed in cream,

And rocks poured out streams of oil for me.

⁷When I passed through the city gates

To take my seat in the square,

⁸Young men saw me and hid,

Elders rose and stood;

⁹Nobles held back their words;

They clapped their hands to their mouths.

¹⁰The voices of princes were hushed;

Their tongues stuck to their palates.

¹¹The ear that heard me acclaimed me;

The eye that saw, commended me.

¹²For I saved the poor man who cried out,

The orphan who had none to help him.

¹³I received the blessing of the lost;

I gladdened the heart of the widow.

¹⁴I clothed myself in righteousness and it robed me;

Justice was my cloak and turban.

¹⁵I was eyes to the blind

And feet to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the needy,

And I looked into the case of the stranger.

¹⁷I broke the jaws of the wrongdoer,

And I wrested prey from his teeth.

¹⁸I thought I would end my days with my family,

And be as long-lived as the phoenix,

¹⁹My roots reaching water,

And dew lying on my branches;

²⁰My vigor refreshed,

My bow ever new in my hand.

²¹Men would listen to me expectantly,

And wait for my counsel.

²²After I spoke they had nothing to say;

My words were as drops [of dew] upon them.

²³They waited for me as for rain,

For the late rain, their mouths open wide.

²⁴When I smiled at them, they would not believe it;

They never expected a sign of my favor.

²⁵I decided their course and presided over them;

I lived like a king among his troops,

Like one who consoles mourners.

Chapter 31

¹I have covenanted with my eyes

Not to gaze on a maiden. [ . . . ]

⁵Have I walked with worthless men,

Or my feet hurried to deceit?

⁶Let Him weigh me on the scale of righteousness;

Let God ascertain my integrity.

⁷If my feet have strayed from their course,

My heart followed after my eyes,

And a stain sullied my hands,

⁸May I sow, but another reap,

May the growth of my field be uprooted!

⁹If my heart was ravished by the wife of my neighbor,

And I lay in wait at his door,

¹⁰May my wife grind for another,

May others kneel over her!

¹¹For that would have been debauchery,

A criminal offense,

¹²A fire burning down to Abaddon,

Consuming the roots of all my increase.

¹³Did I ever brush aside the case of my servants, man or maid,

When they made a complaint against me?

¹⁴What then should I do when God arises;

When He calls me to account, what should I answer Him?

¹⁵Did not He who made me in my mother’s belly make him?

Did not One form us both in the womb?

¹⁶Did I deny the poor their needs,

Or let a widow pine away,

¹⁷By eating my food alone,

The fatherless not eating of it also?

¹⁸Why, from my youth he grew up with me as though I were his father;

Since I left my mother’s womb I was her guide.

¹⁹I never saw an unclad wretch,

A needy man without clothing,

²⁰Whose loins did not bless me

As he warmed himself with the shearings of my sheep.

²¹If I raised my hand against the fatherless,

Looking to my supporters in the gate,

²²May my arm drop off my shoulder;

My forearm break off at the elbow.

²³For I am in dread of God-sent calamity;

I cannot bear His threat.

²⁴Did I put my reliance on gold,

Or regard fine gold as my bulwark?

²⁵Did I rejoice in my great wealth,

In having attained plenty?

²⁶If ever I saw the light shining,

The moon on its course in full glory,

²⁷And I secretly succumbed,

And my hand touched my mouth in a kiss,

²⁸That, too, would have been a criminal offense,

For I would have denied God above.

²⁹Did I rejoice over my enemy’s misfortune?

Did I thrill because evil befell him?

³⁰I never let my mouth sin

By wishing his death in a curse. [ . . . ]

³²No sojourner spent the night in the open;

I opened my doors to the road.

³³Did I hide my transgressions like Adam,

Bury my wrongdoing in my bosom,

³⁴That I should [now] fear the great multitude,

And am shattered by the contempt of families,

So that I keep silent and do not step outdoors?

³⁵O that I had someone to give me a hearing;

O that Shaddai would reply to my writ,

Or my accuser draw up a true bill!

³⁶I would carry it on my shoulder;

Tie it around me for a wreath.

³⁷I would give him an account of my steps,

Offer it as to a commander.

³⁸If my land cries out against me,

Its furrows weep together;

³⁹If I have eaten its produce without payment,

And made its [rightful] owners despair,

⁴⁰May nettles grow there instead of wheat;

Instead of barley, stinkweed!

The words of Job are at an end.

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Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.

Job’s Final Speeches

Chapter 29

Chapter 31

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Job’s Final Speeches

Chapter 29

Chapter 31

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