Job, starting at chapter 28
{28:1} "Surely there is a mine for silver,
and a place for gold which they refine.
{28:2} Iron is taken out of the earth,
and copper is smelted out of the ore.
{28:3} Man sets an end to darkness,
and searches out, to the furthest bound,
the stones of obscurity and of thick darkness.
{28:4} He breaks open a shaft away from where people live.
They are forgotten by the foot.
They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.
{28:5} As for the earth, out of it comes bread;
Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
{28:6} Sapphires come from its rocks.
It has dust of gold.
{28:7} That path no bird of prey knows,
neither has the falcon's eye seen it.
{28:8} The proud animals have not trodden it,
nor has the fierce lion passed by there.
{28:9} He puts forth his hand on the flinty rock,
and he overturns the mountains by the roots.
{28:10} He cuts out channels among the rocks.
His eye sees every precious thing.
{28:11} He binds the streams that they don't trickle.
The thing that is hidden he brings forth to light.
{28:12} "But where shall wisdom be found?
Where is the place of understanding?
{28:13} Man doesn't know its price;
Neither is it found in the land of the living.
{28:14} The deep says, 'It isn't in me.'
The sea says, 'It isn't with me.'
{28:15} It can't be gotten for gold,
neither shall silver be weighed for its price.
{28:16} It can't be valued with the gold of Ophir,
with the precious onyx, or the [1>]sapphire[<1].
{28:17} Gold and glass can't equal it,
neither shall it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.
{28:18} No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal.
Yes, the price of wisdom is above rubies.
{28:19} The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it,
Neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
{28:20} Whence then comes wisdom?
Where is the place of understanding?
{28:21} Seeing it is hidden from the eyes of all living,
and kept close from the birds of the sky.
{28:22} Destruction and Death say,
'We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.'
{28:23} "God understands its way,
and he knows its place.
{28:24} For he looks to the ends of the earth,
and sees under the whole sky.
{28:25} He establishes the force of the wind.
Yes, he measures out the waters by measure.
{28:26} When he made a decree for the rain,
and a way for the lightning of the thunder;
{28:27} then he saw it, and declared it.
He established it, yes, and searched it out.
{28:28} To man he said,
'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.
To depart from evil is understanding.'"
{29:1} Job 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;
{29:3} when his lamp shone on my head,
and by his light I walked through darkness,
{29:4} as I was in the ripeness of my days,
when the friendship of God was in my tent,
{29:5} when the Almighty was yet with me,
and my children were around me,
{29:6} when my steps were washed with butter,
and the rock poured out streams of oil for me,
{29:7} when I went forth to the city gate,
when I prepared my seat in the street.
{29:8} The young men saw me and hid themselves.
The aged rose up and stood.
{29:9} The princes refrained from talking,
and laid their hand on their mouth.
{29:10} The voice of the nobles was hushed,
and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
{29:11} For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me;
and when the eye saw me, it commended me:
{29:12} Because I delivered the poor who cried,
and the fatherless also, who had none to help him,
{29:13} the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me,
and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
{29:14} I put on righteousness, and it clothed me.
My justice was as a robe and a diadem.
{29:15} I was eyes to the blind,
and feet to the lame.
{29:16} I was a father to the needy.
The cause of him who I didn't know, I searched out.
{29:17} I broke the jaws of the unrighteous,
and plucked the prey out of his teeth.
{29:18} Then I said, 'I shall die in my own house,
I shall number my days as the sand.
{29:19} My root is spread out to the waters.
The dew lies all night on my branch.
{29:20} My 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.
{29:22} After my words they didn't speak again.
My speech fell on them.
{29:23} They waited for me as for the rain.
Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.
{29:24} I smiled on them when they had no confidence.
They didn't reject the light of my face.
{29:25} I chose out their way, and sat as chief.
I lived as a king in the army,
as one who comforts the mourners.
{30:1} "But now those who are younger than I have me in derision,
whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
{30:2} Of what use is the strength of their hands to me,
men in whom ripe age has perished?
{30:3} They are gaunt from lack and famine.
They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.
{30:4} They pluck salt herbs by the bushes.
The roots of the broom are their food.
{30:5} They are driven out from the midst of men.
They cry after them as after a thief;
{30:6} So that they dwell in frightful valleys,
and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
{30:7} Among the bushes they bray;
and under the nettles they are gathered together.
{30:8} They are children of fools, yes, children of base men.
They were flogged out of the land.
{30:9} "Now I have become their song.
Yes, I am a byword to them.
{30:10} They abhor me, they stand aloof from me,
and don't hesitate to spit in my face.
{30:11} For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me;
and they have thrown off restraint before me.
{30:12} On my right hand rise the rabble.
They thrust aside my feet,
They cast up against me their ways of destruction.
{30:13} They mar my path,
They set forward my calamity,
without anyone's help.
{30:14} As through a wide breach they come,
in the midst of the ruin they roll themselves in.
{30:15} Terrors 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 on me.
{30:17} In the night season my bones are pierced in me,
and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.
{30:18} By great force is my garment disfigured.
It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
{30:19} He has cast me into the mire.
I have become like dust and ashes.
{30:20} I cry to you, and you do not answer me.
I stand up, and you gaze at me.
{30:21} You have turned to be cruel to me.
With the might of your hand you persecute me.
{30:22} You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it.
You dissolve me in the storm.
{30:23} For 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?
{30:25} Didn't I weep for him who was in trouble?
Wasn't my soul grieved for the needy?
{30:26} When I looked for good, then evil came;
When I waited for light, there came darkness.
{30:27} My heart is troubled, and doesn't rest.
Days of affliction have come on me.
{30:28} I go mourning without the sun.
I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
{30:29} I am a brother to jackals,
and a companion to ostriches.
{30:30} My skin grows black and peels from me.
My bones are burned with heat.
{30:31} Therefore my harp has turned to mourning,
and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.
________________________________________________________________________
Footnotes:
[1] {28:16} or, lapis lazuli
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