The Wrong Of Self-defense

¹ Job continued his discourse:

² "How I long for the months gone by,
for the days when God watched over me,

³ when his lamp shone upon my head
and by his light I walked through darkness!

⁴ Oh, for the days when I was in my prime,
when God's intimate friendship blessed my house,

⁵ when the Almighty was still with me
and my children were around me,

⁶ when my path was drenched with cream
and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil.

⁷ "When I went to the gate of the city
and took my seat in the public square,

⁸ the young men saw me and stepped aside
and the old men rose to their feet;

⁹ the chief men refrained from speaking
and covered their mouths with their hands;

¹⁰ the voices of the nobles were hushed,
and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.

¹¹ Whoever heard me spoke well of me,
and those who saw me commended me,

¹² because I rescued the poor who cried for help,
and the fatherless who had none to assist him.

¹³ The man who was dying blessed me;
I made the widow's heart sing.

¹⁴ I put on righteousness as my clothing;
justice was my robe and my turban.

¹⁵ I was eyes to the blind
and feet to the lame.

¹⁶ I was a father to the needy;
I took up the case of the stranger.

¹⁷ I broke the fangs of the wicked
and snatched the victims from their teeth.

¹⁸ "I thought, 'I will die in my own house,
my days as numerous as the grains of sand.

¹⁹ My roots will reach to the water,
and the dew will lie all night on my branches.

²⁰ My glory will remain fresh in me,
the bow ever new in my hand.'

²¹ "Men listened to me expectantly,
waiting in silence for my counsel.

²² After I had spoken, they spoke no more;
my words fell gently on their ears.

²³ They waited for me as for showers
and drank in my words as the spring rain.

²⁴ When I smiled at them, they scarcely believed it;
the light of my face was precious to them.

²⁵ I chose the way for them and sat as their chief;
I dwelt as a king among his troops;
I was like one who comforts mourners.

¹ "But now they mock me,
men younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
to put with my sheep dogs.

² Of what use was the strength of their hands to me,
since their vigor had gone from them?

³ Haggard from want and hunger,
they roamed the parched land
in desolate wastelands at night.

⁴ In the brush they gathered salt herbs,
and their food was the root of the broom tree.

⁵ They were banished from their fellow men,
shouted at as if they were thieves.

⁶ They were forced to live in the dry stream beds,
among the rocks and in holes in the ground.

⁷ They brayed among the bushes
and huddled in the undergrowth.

⁸ A base and nameless brood,
they were driven out of the land.

⁹ "And now their sons mock me in song;
I have become a byword among them.

¹⁰ They detest me and keep their distance;
they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

¹¹ Now that God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me,
they throw off restraint in my presence.

¹² On my right the tribe attacks;
they lay snares for my feet,
they build their siege ramps against me.

¹³ They break up my road;
they succeed in destroying me—
without anyone's helping them.

¹⁴ They advance as through a gaping breach;
amid the ruins they come rolling in.

¹⁵ Terrors overwhelm me;
my dignity is driven away as by the wind,
my safety vanishes like a cloud.

¹⁶ "And now my life ebbs away;
days of suffering grip me.

¹⁷ Night pierces my bones;
my gnawing pains never rest.

¹⁸ In his great power God becomes like clothing to me ;
he binds me like the neck of my garment.

¹⁹ He throws me into the mud,
and I am reduced to dust and ashes.

²⁰ "I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer;
I stand up, but you merely look at me.

²¹ You turn on me ruthlessly;
with the might of your hand you attack me.

²² You snatch me up and drive me before the wind;
you toss me about in the storm.

²³ I know you will bring me down to death,
to the place appointed for all the living.

²⁴ "Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man
when he cries for help in his distress.

²⁵ Have I not wept for those in trouble?
Has not my soul grieved for the poor?

²⁶ Yet when I hoped for good, evil came;
when I looked for light, then came darkness.

²⁷ The churning inside me never stops;
days of suffering confront me.

²⁸ I go about blackened, but not by the sun;
I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

²⁹ I have become a brother of jackals,
a companion of owls.

³⁰ My skin grows black and peels;
my body burns with fever.

³¹ My harp is tuned to mourning,
and my flute to the sound of wailing.

¹ "I made a covenant with my eyes
not to look lustfully at a girl.

² For what is man's lot from God above,
his heritage from the Almighty on high?

³ Is it not ruin for the wicked,
disaster for those who do wrong?

⁴ Does he not see my ways
and count my every step?

⁵ "If I have walked in falsehood
or my foot has hurried after deceit-

⁶ let God weigh me in honest scales
and he will know that I am blameless-

⁷ if my steps have turned from the path,
if my heart has been led by my eyes,
or if my hands have been defiled,

⁸ then may others eat what I have sown,
and may my crops be uprooted.

⁹ "If my heart has been enticed by a woman,
or if I have lurked at my neighbor's door,

¹⁰ then may my wife grind another man's grain,
and may other men sleep with her.

¹¹ For that would have been shameful,
a sin to be judged.

¹² It is a fire that burns to Destruction ;
it would have uprooted my harvest.

¹³ "If I have denied justice to my menservants and maidservants
when they had a grievance against me,

¹⁴ what will I do when God confronts me?
What will I answer when called to account?

¹⁵ Did not he who made me in the womb make them?
Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?

¹⁶ "If I have denied the desires of the poor
or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,

¹⁷ if I have kept my bread to myself,
not sharing it with the fatherless-

¹⁸ but from my youth I reared him as would a father,
and from my birth I guided the widow-

¹⁹ if I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing,
or a needy man without a garment,

²⁰ and his heart did not bless me
for warming him with the fleece from my sheep,

²¹ if I have raised my hand against the fatherless,
knowing that I had influence in court,

²² then let my arm fall from the shoulder,
let it be broken off at the joint.

²³ For I dreaded destruction from God,
and for fear of his splendor I could not do such things.

²⁴ "If I have put my trust in gold
or said to pure gold, 'You are my security,'

²⁵ if I have rejoiced over my great wealth,
the fortune my hands had gained,

²⁶ if I have regarded the sun in its radiance
or the moon moving in splendor,

²⁷ so that my heart was secretly enticed
and my hand offered them a kiss of homage,

²⁸ then these also would be sins to be judged,
for I would have been unfaithful to God on high.

²⁹ "If I have rejoiced at my enemy's misfortune
or gloated over the trouble that came to him-

³⁰ I have not allowed my mouth to sin
by invoking a curse against his life-

³¹ if the men of my household have never said,
'Who has not had his fill of Job's meat?'-

³² but no stranger had to spend the night in the street,
for my door was always open to the traveler-

³³ if I have concealed my sin as men do,
by hiding my guilt in my heart

³⁴ because I so feared the crowd
and so dreaded the contempt of the clans
that I kept silent and would not go outside

³⁵ ("Oh, that I had someone to hear me!
I sign now my defense—let the Almighty answer me;
let my accuser put his indictment in writing.

³⁶ Surely I would wear it on my shoulder,
I would put it on like a crown.

³⁷ I would give him an account of my every step;
like a prince I would approach him.)-

³⁸ "if my land cries out against me
and all its furrows are wet with tears,

³⁹ if I have devoured its yield without payment
or broken the spirit of its tenants,

⁴⁰ then let briers come up instead of wheat
and weeds instead of barley."
The words of Job are ended.

New International Version