King James Version · The patriarchs
Job 34
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1Furthermore answered and said, Hear my words, O ye men; and give ear unto me, ye that have knowledge. For the ear trieth words, as the tasteth meat. Let us choose to us : let us know among ourselves what is good. For hath said, I am : and hath taken away my . Should I lie against my right? my wound is incurable without . What man is like , who drinketh up scorning like water? Which goeth in company with the workers of , and walketh with men. For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with . Therefore unto me, ye men of understanding: far be it from , that he should do wickedness; and from , that he should commit . For the work of a man shall he render unto him, and cause every man to find according to his ways. Yea, surely will not do wickedly, neither will pervert . Who hath given him a charge over the earth? or who hath disposed the whole world? If he set upon man, if he gather unto himself his and his breath; shall together, and man shall turn again unto . If now thou hast understanding, hear this: to the voice of my words. Shall even he that hateth right govern? and wilt thou condemn him that is most ? Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art ? and to princes, Ye are ungodly? How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than ? for they all are the work of his hands. In a moment shall they , and the people shall be troubled at midnight, and pass away: and the mighty shall be taken away without hand. For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. There is no , nor shadow of , where the workers of may hide themselves. For he will not lay upon man more than right; that he should enter into with . He shall break in pieces without number, and set others in their stead. Therefore he knoweth their works, and he overturneth them in the night, so that they are destroyed. He striketh them as men in the open sight of others; Because they turned back from him, and would not consider any of his ways: So that they cause the cry of to come unto him, and he heareth the cry of . When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? and when he hideth , who then can behold him? whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only: That the reign not, lest the people be ensnared. Surely it is meet to be said unto , I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more: That which I see not teach thou me: if I have done , I will do no more. Should it be according to thy ? he will it, whether thou refuse, or whether thou choose; and not I: therefore speak what thou knowest. Let men of understanding tell me, and let a man unto me. hath spoken without knowledge, and his words were without . My is that may be tried unto the end because of his answers for men. For he addeth rebellion unto his , he clappeth his hands among us, and multiplieth his words against .
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.