Job
5 If I have walked with [men of] untruth,+
And my foot hastens to deception,+
7 If my stepping deviates from the way,+
Or my heart has walked merely after my eyes,+
Or any defect has stuck in my own palms,+
8 Let me sow seed and someone else eat,+
And let my own descendants be rooted out.
9 If my heart has been enticed toward a woman,+
And I kept lying in wait+ at the very entranceway of my companion,
10 Let my wife do the grinding for another man,
And over her let other men kneel down.+
12 For that is a fire that would eat clear to destruction,*+
And among all my produce it would take root.
13 If I used to refuse the judgment of my slave man
Or of my slave girl in their case at law with me,
14 Then what can I do when God* rises up?
And when he calls for an accounting, what can I answer him?+
15 Did not the One making me in the belly make him,+
And did not just One proceed to prepare us in the womb?
16 If I used to hold back the lowly ones from [their] delight,+
And the eyes of the widow I would cause to fail,+
17 And I used to eat my morsel by myself,
While the fatherless boy did not eat from it+
18 (For from my youth he grew up with me as with a father,
And from the belly of my mother I kept leading her);
19 If I used to see anyone perishing from having no garment,+
Or that the poor one had no covering;
20 If his loins did not bless me,+
Nor from the shorn wool+ of my young rams he would warm himself;
21 If I waved my hand to and fro against the fatherless boy,+
When I would see [need of] my assistance in the gate,+
22 Let my own shoulder blade fall from its shoulder,
And let my own arm be broken from its upper bone.
25 If I used to rejoice because my property was much,+
And because my hand had found a lot of things;+
26 If I used to see the light when it would flash forth,
Or the precious moon walking along,+
27 And my heart began to be enticed in secrecy+
And my hand proceeded to kiss my mouth,*
28 That too would be an error for [attention by] the justices,
For I should have denied the [true] God above.
29 If I used to rejoice at the extinction of one intensely hating me,+
Or I felt excited* because evil had found him—
30 And I did not allow my palate to sin
By asking for an oath against his soul.+
31 If the men of my tent did not say,
‘Who can produce anyone that has not been satisfied from food* of his?’+—
32 Outside no alien resident would spend the night;+
My doors I kept open to the path.*
33 If like an earthling man* I covered over my transgressions+
By hiding my error in my shirt pocket—
34 Because I would suffer a shock at a large crowd,
Or the contempt itself of families would terrorize me
And I would keep silent, I would not go out of the entrance.
35 O that I had someone listening to me,+
That according to my signature* the Almighty himself would answer me!+
Or that the individual* in the case at law with me had written a document itself!
36 Surely upon my shoulder I would carry it;
I would bind it around me like a grand crown.
38 If against me my own ground would cry for aid,
And together its furrows themselves would weep;
39 If its fruitage* I have eaten without money,+
And the soul of its owners I have caused to pant,+
40 Instead of wheat let the thorny weed go forth,+
And instead of barley stinking weeds.”
The words of Job have come to an end.