World English Bible · The patriarchs
Job 32
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So these three men ceased to answer , because he was in his own eyes. Then the of the son of Barachel, the Buzite, of the family of , was kindled against . His was kindled because he himself rather than . Also his was kindled against his three friends, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned . Now had waited to speak to , because they were older than he. When saw that there was no answer in the of these three men, his was kindled. the son of Barachel the Buzite answered, "I am young, and you are very old. Therefore I held back, and didn't dare show you my opinion. I said, 'Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach .' But there is a in man, and of gives them understanding. It is not the great who are , nor the aged who understand justice. Therefore I said, 'Listen to me; I also will show my opinion.' "Behold, I waited for your words, and I listened for your reasoning, while you searched out what to say. Yes, I gave you my full attention, but there was no one who convinced , or who answered his words, among you. Beware lest you say, 'We have found . may refute him, not man;' 14for he has not directed his words against me; neither will I answer him with your speeches. "They are amazed. They answer no more. They don't have a word to say. Shall I wait, because they don't speak, because they stand still, and answer no more? I also will answer my part, and I also will show my opinion. For I am full of words. within me constrains me. Behold, my breast is as which has no vent; like new wineskins it is ready to burst. I will speak, that I may be refreshed. I will open my and answer. Please don't let me respect any man's person, neither will I give flattering titles to any man. For I don't know how to give flattering titles, or else my Maker would soon take me away.
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.