The Sceptics of the Old Testament: Job - Koheleth - Agur Part 25

Will he delight himself in the Almighty?

Will he always call upon G.o.d?

CCXL

If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword, And his offspring shall not be sated with bread; They that survive him shall be buried in death, And their widows shall not weep.

CCXLI

Though he heap up silver as the dust And store up raiment as the clay, He may indeed prepare it, but the just shall put it on, And the guiltless shall divide the silver.

CCXLII

He buildeth his house as a spider; Rich shall he lie down, but rich he shall not remain.

Terrors take hold on him like waters; A tempest sweepeth him away in the night.

CCXLIII

JOB:

Oh that I were as in months gone by, As in the days when G.o.d preserved me; When his lamp s.h.i.+ned upon my head, And when I walked by his light through darkness!

CCXLIV

For then I moved in suns.h.i.+ne, While G.o.d was familiar with my tent; While I washed my steps in cream, And the rock poured me out rivers of oil.

CCXLV

When I went to the gate at the city,[245]

When I prepared my seat on the public place, Then the young men, seeing me, hid themselves, And the aged arose and remained standing.

CCXLVI

Princes desisted from talking, And laid their hands upon their mouths; For the ear heard me and blessed, The eye saw me and bore me witness.

CCXLVII

For I delivered the poor that cried aloud, And the orphan and him that had none to help him; The blessing of him that was peris.h.i.+ng came upon me, And I gladdened the heart of the widow.

CCXLVIII

I put on righteousness and it clothed me; My judgment was as a robe and a diadem.

I became eyes to the blind, And I was feet unto the lame.

CCXLIX

I was a father to the poor, And the cause which I knew not I searched out; And I brake the grinders of the wicked.

And plucked the spoil out of his teeth.

CCL

Unto me men gave ear and waited, And kept silence at my counsel.

After my words they spake not again, And my speech fell upon them as a shower.

CCLI

But now they laugh me to scorn, Shepherd boys approach me with insolence, Whose fathers I would not have deigned To set with the dogs of my flock.

CCLII

Yea, what booted me the strength of their hands?

Pity upon them was thrown away.

They were children of fools, yea, men of no name, They were driven forth from the land.

CCLIII

And now I am become the song of these!

Yea, I am become their byword!

They loathe me, they flee far from me, And withhold not spittle from my face.

CCLIV

For he hath dissolved my dignity and humbled me, And he hath taken away my renown.

He hath opened a way to my miseries; They enter and no one helpeth me.

CCLV

With rumbling and booming they bounded along; Terrors are turned upon me; Thou scatterest my dignity, as with a wind, And my welfare pa.s.seth as a cloud.

CCLVI

The night gnaws away my bones, And my devourers need no repose; By swellings is my garment misshapen, And I am grown like unto dust and ashes.

CCLVII

I cry and thou hearest me not, Thou art become ruthless towards me; With the strength of thy hand thou a.s.sailest me, And thou meltest my salvation away.

CCLVIII

For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, And to the house appointed for all living.

But shall not a drowning man stretch out his hand?

Shall he not cry out in his destruction?

CCLIX

Did I not weep for him that was in trouble?

Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

I looked for good and waited for light; Behold days of sorrowing are come upon me.

CCLX