rsv Job:29-30
rsv@Job:29:1 @ And Job again took up his discourse, and said:
rsv@Job:29:2 @ "Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me;
rsv@Job:29:3 @ when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness;
rsv@Job:29:4 @ as I was in my autumn days, when the friendship of God was upon my tent;
rsv@Job:29:5 @ when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;
rsv@Job:29:6 @ when my steps were washed with milk, and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
rsv@Job:29:7 @ When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square,
rsv@Job:29:8 @ the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose and stood;
rsv@Job:29:9 @ the princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth;
rsv@Job:29:10 @ the voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.
rsv@Job:29:11 @ When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved;
rsv@Job:29:12 @ because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless who had none to help him.
rsv@Job:29:13 @ The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
rsv@Job:29:14 @ I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban.
rsv@Job:29:15 @ I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame.
rsv@Job:29:16 @ I was a father to the poor, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.
rsv@Job:29:17 @ I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
rsv@Job:29:18 @ Then I thought, `en I thought, "I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand,
rsv@Job:29:19 @ my roots spread out to the waters, with the dew all night on my branches,
rsv@Job:29:20 @ my glory fresh with me, and my bow ever new in my hand.'
rsv@Job:29:21 @ "Men listened to me, and waited, and kept silence for my counsel.
rsv@Job:29:22 @ After I spoke they did not speak again, and my word dropped upon them.
rsv@Job:29:23 @ They waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.
rsv@Job:29:24 @ I smiled on them when they had no confidence; and the light of my countenance they did not cast down.
rsv@Job:29:25 @ I chose their way, and sat as chief, and I dwelt like a king among his troops, like one who comforts mourners.
rsv@Job:30:1 @ "But now they make sport of me, men who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.
rsv@Job:30:2 @ What could I gain from the strength of their hands, men whose vigor is gone?
rsv@Job:30:3 @ Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry and desolate ground;
rsv@Job:30:4 @ they pick mallow and the leaves of bushes, and to warm themselves the roots of the broom.
rsv@Job:30:5 @ They are driven out from among men; they shout after them as after a thief.
rsv@Job:30:6 @ In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell, in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
rsv@Job:30:7 @ Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they huddle together.
rsv@Job:30:8 @ A senseless, a disreputable brood, they have been whipped out of the land.
rsv@Job:30:9 @ "And now I have become their song, I am a byword to them.
rsv@Job:30:10 @ They abhor me, they keep aloof from me; they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.
rsv@Job:30:11 @ Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me, they have cast off restraint in my presence.
rsv@Job:30:12 @ On my right hand the rabble rise, they drive me forth, they cast up against me their ways of destruction.
rsv@Job:30:13 @ They break up my path, they promote my calamity; no one restrains them.
rsv@Job:30:14 @ As through a wide breach they come; amid the crash they roll on.
rsv@Job:30:15 @ Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.
rsv@Job:30:16 @ "And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me.
rsv@Job:30:17 @ The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.
rsv@Job:30:18 @ With violence it seizes my garment; it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
rsv@Job:30:19 @ God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.
rsv@Job:30:20 @ I cry to thee and thou dost not answer me; I stand, and thou dost not heed me.
rsv@Job:30:21 @ Thou hast turned cruel to me; with the might of thy hand thou dost persecute me.
rsv@Job:30:22 @ Thou liftest me up on the wind, thou makest me ride on it, and thou tossest me about in the roar of the storm.
rsv@Job:30:23 @ Yea, I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.
rsv@Job:30:24 @ "Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster cry for help?
rsv@Job:30:25 @ Did not I weep for him whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the poor?
rsv@Job:30:26 @ But when I looked for good, evil came; and when I waited for light, darkness came.
rsv@Job:30:27 @ My heart is in turmoil, and is never still; days of affliction come to meet me.
rsv@Job:30:28 @ I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
rsv@Job:30:29 @ I am a brother of jackals, and a companion of ostriches.
rsv@Job:30:30 @ My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat.
rsv@Job:30:31 @ My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.
rsv@Job:31:1 @ "I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I look upon a virgin?