Study Desk

my steps were awash in butter, and the rocks poured out for me streams of olive oil.

for I delivered the poor when they cried for assistance, the orphan too, who had no one to help him.

Those who had been about to die would bless me, and I made widows sing in their hearts for joy.

I was eyes for the blind, and I was feet for the lame.

They waited for me as if for rain, as if for spring rain, with their mouths open wide.

I chose their way [for them], sitting as chief; I lived like a king in the army, like one who comforts mourners.

For God has loosened my bowstring and humbled me; they throw off restraint in my presence.

For I know that you will bring me to death, the house assigned to everyone living.

"Surely [God] wouldn't strike at a ruin, if in one's calamity one cried out to him for help.

Didn't I weep for those who were in trouble? Didn't I grieve for the needy?

Yet when I hoped for good, what came was bad; when I expected light, what came was darkness.

I go about in sunless gloom, I rise in the assembly and cry for help.

So my lyre is tuned for mourning, my pipe to the voice of those who weep.

then let my wife grind for another man, and let others kneel on her.

For that would be a heinous act, a criminal offense,

who didn't bless me from his heart for being warmed with the fleece from my sheep,

For calamity from God has always terrified me; before his majesty I could never do a thing [like that].

then this too would be a criminal offense, for I would have been lying to God on high.

No, I did not allow my mouth to sin by asking for his life with a curse.

But then the anger of Elihu the son of Barakh'el the Buzi, from the family of Ram, blazed up against Iyov for thinking he was right and God wrong.