the feet of the lame.

I was a father of the poor: and what things I knew not, them I searched out.

I brake the molars of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
18, I thought: I will die in my nest, and make my days much as the sand.

My seed came up by the waters; and the dew remained upon my harvest.

My glory was always renewed in me; and my bow was improved in my hand.

They hearkened unto me, and held their peace, and waited for my counsel.

After my words no man spake any more; and my speech dripped upon them.

They waited for me as for the rain, and opened their mouths as after the evening rain.

When I laughed at them, they became not bold upon it, and the light of my countenance made me no less.

When I came to their business, I sat on high, and dwelt as a king among the soldiers, comforting them that were in pain.
(Job)
Chapter 30
Job complains about his misery and his temptation.

But now laugh at mine that are younger than I, whose fathers I would have despised, to put among my sheep,

which fortunes I thought were nothing, which could not come to old age, 3. Who from hunger and grief fled lonely into the wilderness, and were lately corrupted and made miserable,

Who plucked up nettles round about the bushes, and juniper root was their meat; 5. And when they plucked them out, they rejoiced over them as a thief.

By the cruel brooks they dwelt, in the holes of the earth, and in the clefts of the stones.

Among the bushes they called, and among the thistles they gathered, 8. The children of loose and despised people, who were the least in the land.

Now am I become their strings, and must be their tale.

They have abhorred me, and have put themselves far from me, and have not spared to spit before my face.

They have unloosed my rope, and made me of none strength, and have cut off mine own.

On the right hand, when I was green, they set me again, and thrust out my foot; and made a way over me to destroy me.

They have broken my staves: it was so easy for them to hurt me, that they needed no help to do it.

They are come in, as to the wide breach, and are fallen down without order.

Terror hath turned itself against me, and hath pursued as the wind my glory, and as a running cloud my blessed estate.

But now my soul poureth out upon me, and the wretched time hath taken hold upon me.

In the night my bones are pierced in every place, and they that hunt me lie not down.

By the multitude of strength I am clothed differently and differently; and I am girded therewith as with the hole of my skirt.

I have been trodden in dung, and counted as dust and ashes.

If I cry unto thee, thou answerest me not: if I come forth, thou regardest me not.

Thou art turned unto me into a cruel man, and showest thy grief upon me with the strength of thine hand.

Thou liftest me up, and makest me to run on the wind, and makest me to melt.

For I know that thou wilt deliver me to death: there is the appointed house of all the living.

But he shall not stretch forth his hand into the charnel house, neither shall they cry out because of his destruction.

For I wept in the hard time, and my soul mourned for the poor.

I waited for good, and evil cometh: I hoped for light, and darkness cometh.

My bowels boil, and cease not: the wretched time hath overtaken me.

I walk in black, and yet no sun burneth me: I stand up in the congregation, and cry.

I am a brother of serpents and a companion of ostriches.

My skin is blackened above me, and my bones are withered from the heat.

My harp is become a lamentation, and my pipe a weeping.
(Job)
Chapter 31
Job’s blameless change.

I have made a covenant with mine eyes, that I should not regard a virgin.

But what reward doth God give me from above? and what inheritance doth the Almighty give me from on high?

Ought not the unjust to have such misfortune, and a transgressor to be so cast down?

Seeth he not my ways, and numbereth all my courses?

Have I walked in vanity? or hath my foot hastened to deceit?

Weigh me in the right balance, and God shall know my piety.

My walk is gone out of the way, and my heart followeth mine eyes; and there is something in my hands,

Then shall I sow, and another shall eat it, and my seed shall be rooted up.

My heart hath been provoked to wife, and I have lain in wait at my neighbour’s door, 10. Let my wife be defiled by another, and let others put her to sleep.

For this is a vice and an iniquity unto the judges.

For that would be a fire that would consume to destruction, and root out all my income.

I have despised the right of my servant, or of my handmaid, when they had a matter against me,

What would I do when GOD arose, and what would I answer when He visited?

Did not he also make him that made me in the womb, and prepare him in the body likewise?

Have I denied the desire of the needy, and made the eyes of widows to languish?

Have I eaten mine own morsel, and not the fatherless also eaten thereof?

For I, from my youth, have kept myself as a father: and from my mother’s womb I have been glad to comfort.

Have I seen a man perish because he had no raiment, and the poor man go without a covering?

Have not his sides blessed me, when he was warmed with the skins of my lambs?

I have laid my hand upon the fatherless, because I saw myself in the gate having power to help,

Then let my shoulder fall from the armpit, and my arm break from the tube.

For I fear GOD as an accident upon me, and could not bear his burden.

Have I put the gold for my confidence, and said unto the nugget of gold, My consolation?

Was I glad that I had great goods, and that my hand had gotten all things?

Have I looked upon the light when it shineth brightly, and upon the moon when it goeth full?

Hath my heart been secretly persuaded, that my hand may kiss my mouth?

Which also is an iniquity for the judges: for thereby would I have denied GOD from above.

Have I rejoiced when mine enemy was in evil, and exalted myself that evil had befallen him?

For I would not let my mouth sin, that he should desire a curse upon his soul.

Have not the men of my tabernacle said, O would God that we were not satisfied with his flesh!

the guest did not have to stay outside, but I opened my door to the wayfarer.

Have I covered my wickedness like a man, to hide my iniquity in secret?

Did I let myself be afraid of the great multitude, and was I put off by the contempt of friendships? I remained silent and did not go out the door.

Who shall give me an interrogator, that my desire may be heard of the Almighty, that someone may write a book of my cause?

Then would I take it upon mine armpits, and bind it about me like a crown.

I would declare the number of my courses, and like a prince would I offer them.

My land shall cry out against me, and shall weep her furrows together; 39. I have eaten its fruit without payment, and have made the life of the husbandmen sour, 40. So I grow thistles for wheat and thorns for barley. The words of Job have an end.
(Job)
Chapter 32
Elihu is angry at the silence of Job’s friends.

Then the three men ceased answering Job, because he thought himself righteous.

And Elihu the son of Baracheel, of Bus, of the family of Ram, was wroth with Job, because he
thought his soul more righteous than God.

And he was wroth with his three friends, because they found no answer, and yet condemned Job.

For Elihu had tarried until they had spoken unto Job, because they were older than he.

Therefore when he saw that there was no answer in the mouth of the three men, he was wroth.

And Elihu the son of Baracheel, of Bus, answered and said: I am young, but ye are old: therefore have I been afraid and dreaded to shew mine art upon you.

I said, Let the years speak, and let the multitude of age shew wisdom.

But the spirit is in the people, and the breath of the Almighty makes them understand.
9: The great are not the wisest, and the old do not understand the law.

Therefore will I also speak; hearken unto me. I will also let my art be seen.

Behold, I have kept watch over your words; I have kept watch over your understanding, until ye have done right speaking,

And I have taken heed unto you: but, behold, there is none among you to reprove Job, or to answer his speech.

Ye may say, We have met with wisdom, that God hath cast him out, and none else.

This speech doth not do for me: I will not answer him thus after your speech.

Alas! they are despondent, they can no more answer, they can no more speak.

Because I have tarried, and they could not speak (for they stand still, and answer no more), 17. yet I will answer my part, and will prove my art;

For I am so full of words, that the breath of my belly is troubled.

Behold,