Job 30:1-31 - Job's Final Defense Continued
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men younger than I am,
whose fathers I would have refused to put
with my sheep dogs.
Their vigor had left them.
they gnawed the dry land,
the desolate wasteland by night.
and the roots of the broom tree were their food.
people shouted at them as if they were thieves.
among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
they huddle beneath the thistles.
They were forced to leave the land.
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I have become an object of scorn to them.
they do not hesitate to spit
they have cast off restraint in my presence.
they trap
and construct their siege ramp
they contribute to my destruction,
without anyone to help them.
they keep rolling in through the ruins.
they chase my dignity away like the wind,
and my prosperity has passed by like a cloud.
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and days of suffering
but my gnawing pains never rest.
He chokes me by the neck of my garment.
and I have become like dust and ashes.
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when I stand up, You merely look at me.
You harass
You scatter me in the storm.
the place
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against a ruined man
when he cries out to him for help
because of his distress.
Has my soul not grieved for the needy?
when I looked for light, darkness
days of suffering confront me.
I stood in the assembly and cried out for help.
and a companion of ostriches.
and my bones burn with fever.
and my flute for the sound of weeping.
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How then could I look at a young woman?
or what inheritance from the Almighty on high?
and misfortune to evildoers?
and number all my steps?
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or my foot has rushed to deceit,
and He will recognize my integrity.
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my heart has followed my eyes,
or impurity has stained my hands,
and let my crops be uprooted.
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or I have lurked at his door,
and let other men sleep with
it would be a crime deserving punishment.
it would destroy my entire harvest.
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when they made a complaint against me,
How should I answer Him when He calls me to account?
Did not the same God form us both in the womb?
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or let the widow’s
without letting the fatherless eat any of it—
and since the day I was born
or a needy person without a cloak,
while warming himself with the fleece from my sheep,
when I saw that I had support in the city gate,
and my arm be pulled from its socket.
and because of His majesty I could not do these things.
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or called fine gold my trust,
or because my own hand has acquired so much,
or at the moon moving in splendor,
and I threw them a kiss,
for I would have denied God above.
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or become excited when trouble came his way?
by asking for his life with a curse.
“Who is there who has not had enough to eat at Job’s table?”
for I opened my door to the traveler.
by hiding my guilt in my heart,
and the contempt of the clans terrified me,
so I grew silent and would not go outside?
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Here is my signature; let the Almighty answer me.
Let my Opponent compose His indictment.
and wear it like a crown.
I would approach Him like a prince.
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and its furrows join in weeping,
or shown contempt for its tenants,
and stinkweed
The words of Job are concluded.