Job 29:2-30:31 - Heartlight

²“How I long for the months gone by,

for the days when God watched over me,

³when His lamp shone above my head,

and by His light I walked through the darkness,

⁴when I was in my prime,

when the friendship of God rested on my tent,

⁵when the Almighty was still with me

and my children were around me,

⁶when my steps were bathed in cream

and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!

⁷When I went out to the city gate

and took my seat in the public square,

⁸the young men saw me and withdrew,

and the old men rose to their feet.

⁹The princes refrained from speaking

and covered their mouths with their hands.

¹⁰The voices of the nobles were hushed,

and their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.

¹¹For those who heard me called me blessed,

and those who saw me commended me,

¹²because I rescued the poor who cried out

and the fatherless who had no helper.

¹³The dying man blessed me,

and I made the widow’s heart sing for joy.

¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;

justice was my robe and my turban.

¹⁵I served as eyes to the blind

and as feet to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the needy,

and I took up the case of the stranger.

¹⁷I shattered the fangs of the unjust

and snatched the prey from his teeth.

¹⁸So I thought: ‘I will die in my nest

and multiply my days as the sand.

¹⁹My roots will spread out to the waters,

and the dew will rest nightly on my branches.

²⁰My glory is ever new within me,

and my bow is renewed in my hand.’

²¹Men listened to me with expectation,

waiting silently for my counsel.

²²After my words, they spoke no more;

my speech settled on them like dew.

²³They waited for me as for rain

and drank in my words like spring showers.

²⁴If I smiled at them, they did not believe it;

the light of my countenance was precious.

²⁵I chose their course and presided as chief.

So I dwelt as a king among his troops,

as a comforter of the mourners.

¹“But now they mock me,

men younger than I am,

whose fathers I would have refused

to entrust with my sheep dogs.

²What use to me was the strength of their hands,

since their vigor had left them?

³Gaunt from poverty and hunger,

they gnawed the dry land,

and the desolate wasteland by night.

⁴They plucked mallow among the shrubs,

and the roots of the broom tree were their food.

⁵They were banished from among men,

shouted down like thieves,

⁶so that they lived on the slopes of the wadis,

among the rocks and in holes in the ground.

⁷They cried out among the shrubs

and huddled beneath the nettles.

⁸A senseless and nameless brood,

they were driven off the land.

⁹And now they mock me in song;

I have become a byword among them.

¹⁰They abhor me and keep far from me;

they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

¹¹Because God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me,

they have cast off restraint in my presence.

¹²The rabble arises at my right;

they lay snares for my feet

and build siege ramps against me.

¹³They tear up my path;

they profit from my destruction,

with no one to restrain them.

¹⁴They advance as through a wide breach;

through the ruins they keep rolling in.

¹⁵Terrors are turned loose against me;

they drive away my dignity as by the wind,

and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.

¹⁶And now my soul is poured out within me;

days of affliction grip me.

¹⁷Night pierces my bones,

and my gnawing pains never rest.

¹⁸With great force He grasps my garment;

He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.

¹⁹He throws me into the mud,

and I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer;

when I stand up, You merely look at me.

²¹You have ruthlessly turned on me;

You oppose me with Your strong hand.

²²You snatch me up into the wind

and drive me before it;

You toss me about in the storm.

²³Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death,

to the place appointed for all the living.

²⁴Yet no one stretches out his hand to a ruined man

when he cries for help in his distress.

²⁵Have I not wept for those in trouble?

Has my soul not grieved for the needy?

²⁶But when I hoped for good, evil came;

when I looked for light, darkness fell.

²⁷I am churning within and cannot rest;

days of affliction confront me.

²⁸I go about blackened, but not by the sun.

I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

²⁹I have become a brother of jackals,

a companion of ostriches.

³⁰My skin grows black and peels,

and my bones burn with fever.

³¹My harp is tuned to mourning

and my flute to the sound of weeping.

— Job 29:2-30:31

(BSB)

Related Resources from Heartlight

There is 1 resource related to this passage:

Spurgeon AM Devo for Aug. 11th

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Cross References for Job 29:2-30:31

Cross References Provided by Open Bible

The Berean Standard Bible

The Berean Standard Bible (BSB) is a modern, clear, and faithful translation based on the best available Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. Ideal for reading, study, and sharing, it entered the public domain in 2023. For more information, visit berean.bible.