World English Bible · The patriarchs
Job 34
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1Moreover answered, "Hear my words, you men. Give ear to me, you who have knowledge. For the ear tries words, as the palate tastes food. Let us choose for us that which is right. Let us know among ourselves what is good. For has said, 'I am , has taken away my right. Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar. My wound is incurable, though I am without .' What man is like , who drinks scorn like water, who goes in company with the workers of , and walks with men? For he has said, 'It profits a man nothing that he should delight himself with .' "Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding: far be it from , that he should do wickedness, from , that he should commit . For the work of a man he will give to him, and cause every man to find according to his ways. Yes surely, will not do wickedly, neither will pervert justice. Who put him in charge of the earth? Or who has appointed him over the whole world? If he set on himself, if he gathered to himself his and his breath, would together, and man would turn again to . "If now you have understanding, hear this. Listen to the voice of my words. Should even one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn him who is and mighty, who says to a king, 'Vile!' or to nobles, '!'? He doesn't respect the persons of princes, nor respect the rich more than , for they all are the work of his hands. In a moment they , even at midnight. The people are shaken and pass away. The mighty are taken away without a hand. "For his eyes are on the ways of a man. He sees all his goings. There is no , nor thick gloom, where the workers of may hide themselves. For he doesn't need to consider a man further, that he should go before in . He breaks in pieces in ways past finding out, and sets others in their place. Therefore he takes knowledge of their works. He overturns them in the night, so that they are destroyed. He strikes them as men in the open sight of others; because they turned away from following him, and wouldn't pay attention to any of his ways, so that they caused the cry of to come to him. He heard the cry of . When he gives quietness, who then can condemn? When he hides , who then can see him? He is over a nation or a man alike, that the godless man may not reign, that there be no one to ensnare the people. "For has any said to , 'I am guilty, but I will not offend any more. Teach me that which I don't see. If I have done , I will do it no more'? Shall his be as you , that you refuse it? For you must choose, and not I. Therefore speak what you know. Men of understanding will tell me, yes, every man who hears me: ' speaks without knowledge. His words are without .' I wish that were tried to the end, because of his answering like men. For he adds rebellion to his . He claps his hands among us, and multiplies his words against ."
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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.