King James Version · The patriarchs
Job 33
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Wherefore, , I thee, hear my speeches, and to all my words. Behold, now I have opened my , my hath spoken in my . My words shall be of the uprightness of : and my shall utter knowledge clearly. of hath made me, and the breath of hath given me life. If thou canst answer me, set thy words in order before me, stand up. Behold, I am according to thy wish in ’s stead: I also am formed out of the . Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee. Surely thou hast spoken in mine hearing, and I have heard the voice of thy words, saying, I am clean without , I am innocent; neither is there in me. Behold, he findeth occasions against me, he counteth me for his enemy, He putteth my feet in the stocks, he marketh all my . Behold, in this thou art not : I will answer thee, that is greater than man. Why dost thou strive against him? for he giveth not account of any of his matters. For speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a , in a of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their , That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. He keepeth back his from , and his life from . He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and of his bones with strong pain: So that his life abhorreth bread, and his dainty meat. His is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out. Yea, his draweth near unto the , and his life to the destroyers. If there be a with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness: Then he is unto him, and saith, him from going down to : I have found a . His shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth: He shall unto , and he will be favourable unto him: and he shall see with joy: for he will render unto man his . He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have , and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He will his from going into , and his life shall see . Lo, all these things worketh oftentimes with man, To bring back his from , to be enlightened with of the living. Mark well, O , unto me: hold thy peace, and I will speak. If thou hast any thing to say, answer me: speak, for I to thee. If not, unto me: hold thy peace, and I shall teach thee .
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. 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.