World English Bible · The patriarchs
Job 31
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"I made a with my eyes; how then should I look lustfully at a young woman? For what is the from above, and the heritage from on high? Is it not calamity to the unrighteous, and disaster to the workers of ? Doesn't he see my ways, and count all my steps? "If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hurried to deceit (let me be weighed in an even balance, that may know my integrity); if my step has turned out of , if walked after my eyes, if any defilement has stuck to my hands, then let me sow, and let another eat. Yes, let the produce of my field be rooted out. "If has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbor's door, then let my wife grind for another, and let others sleep with her. For that would be a heinous crime. Yes, it would be an to be punished by the judges, for it is a that consumes to , and would root out all my increase. "If I have despised the cause of my male servant or of my female servant, when they contended with me, what then will I do when rises up? When he visits, what will I answer him? Didn't he who made me in the make him? Didn't one fashion us in the ? "If I have withheld from their , or have caused the eyes of the to fail, or have eaten my morsel alone, and has not eaten of it 18(no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a , I have guided her from my mother's ); if I have seen any for want of clothing, or that had no covering; if hasn't me, if he hasn't been warmed with my sheep's fleece; if I have lifted up my hand against , because I saw my help in the ; then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone. For calamity from is a terror to me. Because of his majesty, I can do nothing. "If I have made gold my , and have said to the fine gold, 'You are my confidence;' If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much; if I have seen the sun when it shined, or the moon moving in splendor, and has been secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from my ; this also would be an to be punished by the judges, for I would have denied the who is above. "If I have rejoiced at the of him who hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him (I have certainly not allowed my to by asking his life with ); if the men of my tent have not said, 'Who can find one who has not been filled with his meat?' (the has not camped in the street, but I have opened my doors to the traveler); if like I have covered my , by hiding my in , because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and didn't go out of the door— oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment! Surely I would carry it on my shoulder, and I would bind it to me as a . I would declare to him the number of my steps. I would go near to him like a prince. If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together; if I have eaten its fruits without money, or have caused its owners to lose their life, let grow instead of wheat, and stinkweed instead of barley." The words of are ended.
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The patriarchs, 2000 BC to 1600 BC ›
Abraham's family as herdsmen among settled Canaanite city-states, in a world where Egypt and Mesopotamia are the great powers and Canaan is the corridor between them.
- Mesopotamia
- Abraham's own century is Hammurabi's. The great empire of Ur has already fallen, and Babylon rises under a king who published a law code on a stone pillar for everyone to see. Reading Genesis alongside Hammurabi's laws is illuminating in both directions: some provisions are strikingly similar, and the places where Israel's later law diverges are the places worth stopping at.
- Egypt
- The Middle Kingdom, wealthy, bureaucratic, and organised around the Nile flood. Egyptian tomb paintings from this period show Semitic traders arriving with donkeys and striped cloaks, which is more or less the picture Genesis gives of a family going down to Egypt in a famine. Toward the end of the era the Hyksos, rulers of Semitic origin, take the delta.
- Anatolia and the Aegean
- Assyrian merchants run a long-distance trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia, leaving thousands of clay letters about copper, tin, and debt. On Crete the Minoan palaces are at their height, with plumbing, frescoes, and a script nobody has yet read.
- Further afield
- The Indus Valley cities are in decline after centuries of grid-planned streets and drains. In China the Erlitou culture is building the first palace complexes. Stonehenge is standing and already old.