28:1¤ Silver hath beginnings of its veins, and gold hath a place wherein it is melted.

28:2Iron is taken out of the earth, and stone melted with heat is turned into brass.

28:3He hath set a time for darkness, and the end of all things he considereth, the stone also that is in the dark and the shadow of death.

28:4The flood divideth from the people that are on their journey, those whom the food of the needy man hath forgotten, and who cannot be come at.

28:5The land, out of which bread grew in its place, hath been overturned with fire.

28:6The stones of it are the place of sapphires, and the clods of it are gold.

28:7The bird hath not known the path, neither hath the eye of the vulture beheld it.

28:8The children of the merchants have not trodden it, neither hath the lioness passed by it.

28:9He hath stretched forth his hand to the flint, he hath overturned mountains from the roots.

28:10In the rocks he hath cut out rivers, and his eye hath seen every precious thing.

28:11The depths also of rivers he hath searched, and hidden things he hath brought forth to light.

28:12But where is wisdom to be found, and where is the place of understanding?

28:13Man knoweth not the price thereof, neither is it found in the land of them that live in delights.

28:14The depth saith: It is not in me: and the sea saith: It is not with me.

28:15The finest gold shall not purchase it, neither shall silver be weighed in exchange for it.

28:16It shall not be compared with the dyed colours of India, or with the most precious stone sardonyx, or the sapphire.

28:17Gold or crystal cannot equal it, neither shall any vessels of gold be changed for it.

28:18High and eminent things shall not be mentioned in comparison of it: but wisdom is drawn out of secret places.

28:19The topaz of Ethiopia shall not be equal to it, neither shall it be compared to the cleanest dyeing.

28:20Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?

28:21It is hid from the eyes of all living, and the fowls of the air know it not.

28:22Destruction and death have said: With our ears we have heard the fame thereof.

28:23God understandeth the way of it, and he knoweth the place thereof.

28:24For he beholdeth the ends of the world: and looketh on all things that are under heaven.

28:25Who made a weight for the winds, and weighed the waters by measure.

28:26When he gave a law for the rain, and a way for the sounding storms.

28:27Then he saw it, and declared, and prepared, and searched it.

28:28And he said to man: Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom: and to depart from evil, is understanding.

29:1¤ Job also added, taking up his parable, and said:

29:2Who will grant me, that I might be according to the months past, according to the days in which God kept me?

29:3When his lamp shined over my head, and I walked by his light in darkness?

29:4As I was in the days of my youth, when God was secretly in my tabernacle?

29:5When the Almighty was with me: and my servants round about me?

29:6When I washed my feet with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil?

29:7When I went out to the gate of the city, and in the street they prepared me a chair?

29:8The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the old men rose up and stood.

29:9The princes ceased to speak, and laid the finger on their mouth.

29:10The rulers held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to their throat.

29:11The ear that heard me blessed me, and the eye that saw me gave witness to me:

29:12Because I had delivered the poor man that cried out; and the fatherless, that had no helper.

29:13The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me, and I comforted the heart of the widow.

29:14I was clad with justice: and I clothed myself with my judgment, as with a robe and a diadem.

29:15I was an eye to the blind, and a foot to the lame.

29:16I was the father of the poor: and the cause which I knew not, I searched out most diligently.

29:17I broke the jaws of the wicked man, and out of his teeth I took away the prey.

29:18And I said: I shall die in my nest, and as a palm tree shall multiply my days.

29:19My root is opened beside the waters, and dew shall continue in my harvest.

29:20My glory shall always be renewed, and my bow in my hand shall be repaired.

29:21They that heard me, waited for my sentence, and being attentive held their peace at my counsel.

29:22To my words they durst add nothing, and my speech dropped upon them.

29:23They waited for me as for rain, and they opened their mouth as for a latter shower.

29:24If at any time I laughed on them, they believed not, and the light of my countenance fell not on earth.

29:25If I had a mind to go to them, I sat first, and when I sat as a king, with his army standing about him, yet I was a comforter of them that mourned.

30:1¤ But now the younger in time scorn me, whose fathers I would not have set with the dogs of my flock:

30:2The strength of whose hands was to me as nothing, and they were thought unworthy of life itself.

30:3Barren with want and hunger, who gnawed in the wilderness, disfigured with calamity and misery.

30:4And they ate grass, and barks of trees, and the root of junipers was their food.

30:5Who snatched up these things out of the valleys, and when they had found any of them, they ran to them with a cry.

30:6They dwelt in the desert places of torrents, and in caves of earth, or upon the gravel.

30:7They pleased themselves among these kind of things, and counted it delightful to be under the briers.

30:8The children of foolish and base men, and not appearing at all upon the earth.

30:9Now I am turned into their song, and am become their byword.

30:10They abhor me, and flee far from me, and are not afraid to spit in my face.

30:11For he hath opened his quiver, and hath afflicted me, and hath put a bridle into my mouth.

30:12At the right hand of my rising, my calamities forthwith arose: they have overthrown my feet, and have overwhelmed me with their paths as with waves.

30:13They have destroyed my ways, they have lain in wait against me, and they have prevailed, and there was none to help.

30:14They have rushed in upon me, as when a wall is broken, and a gate opened, and have rolled themselves down to my miseries.

30:15I am brought to nothing: as a wind thou hast taken away my desire: and my prosperity hath passed away like a cloud.

30:16And now my soul fadeth within myself, and the days of affliction possess me.

30:17In the night my bone is pierced with sorrows: and they that feed upon me, do not sleep.

30:18With the multitude of them my garment is consumed, and they have girded me about, as with the collar of my coat.

30:19I am compared to dirt, and am likened to embers and ashes.

30:20I cry to thee, and thou hearest me not: I stand up, and thou dost not regard me.

30:21Thou art changed to be cruel toward me, and in the hardness of thy hand thou art against me.

30:22Thou hast lifted me up, and set me as it were upon the wind, and thou hast mightily dashed me.

30:23I know that thou wilt deliver me to death, where a house is appointed for every one that liveth.

30:24But yet thou stretchest not forth thy hand to their consumption: and if they shall fall down thou wilt save.

30:25I wept heretofore for him that was afflicted, and my soul had compassion on the poor.

30:26I expected good things, and evils are come upon me: I waited for light, and darkness broke out.

30:27My inner parts have boiled without any rest, the days of affliction have prevented me.

30:28I went mourning without indignation; I rose up, and cried in the crowd.

30:29I was the brother of dragons, and companion of ostriches.

30:30My skin is become black upon me, and my bones are dried up with heat.

30:31My harp is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of those that weep.

31:1¤ I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin.

31:2For what part should God from above have in me, and what inheritance the Almighty from on high?

31:3Is not destruction to the wicked, and aversion to them that work iniquity?

31:4Doth not he consider my ways, and number all my steps?

31:5If I have walked in vanity, and my foot hath made haste to deceit:

31:6Let him weigh me in a just balance, and let God know my simplicity.

31:7If my step hath turned out of the way, and if my heart hath followed my eyes, and if a spot hath cleaved to my hands:

31:8Then let me sow and let another eat: and let my offspring be rooted out.

31:9If my heart hath been deceived upon a woman, and if I have laid wait at my friend's door:

31:10Let my wife be the harlot of another, and let other men lie with her.

31:11For this is a heinous crime, and a most grievous iniquity.

31:12It is a fire that devoureth even to destruction, and rooteth up all things that spring.

31:13If I have despised to abide judgment with my manservant, or my maidservant, when they had any controversy against me:

31:14For what shall I do when God shall rise to judge? and when he shall examine, what shall I answer him?

31:15Did not he that made me in the womb make him also: and did not one and the same form me in the womb?

31:16If I have denied to the poor what they desired, and have made the eyes of the widow wait:

31:17If I have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof:

31:18(For from my infancy mercy grew up with me: and it came out with me from my mother's womb:)

31:19If I have despised him that was perishing for want of clothing, and the poor man that had no covering:

31:20If his sides have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep:

31:21If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, even when I saw myself superior in the gate:

31:22Let my shoulder fall from its joint, and let my arm with its bones be broken.

31:23For I have always feared God as waves swelling over me, and his weight I was unable to bear.

31:24If I have thought gold my strength, and have said to fine gold: My confidence:

31:25If I have rejoiced over my great riches, and because my hand had gotten much.

31:26If I beheld the sun when it shined and the moon going in brightness:

31:27And my heart in secret hath rejoiced, and I have kissed my hand with, my mouth:

31:28Which is a very great iniquity, and a denial against the most high God.

31:29If I have been glad at the downfall of him that hated me, and have rejoiced that evil had found him.

31:30For I have not given my mouth to sin, by wishing a curse to his soul.

31:31If the men of my tabernacle have not said: Who will give us of his flesh that we may be filled?

31:32The stranger did not stay without, my door was open to the traveller.

31:33If as a man I have hid my sin, and have concealed my iniquity in my bosom.

31:34If I have been afraid at a very great multitude, and the contempt of kinsmen hath terrified me: and have not rather held my peace, and not gone out of the door.

31:35Who would grant me a hearing, that the Almighty may hear my desire: and that he himself that judgeth would write a book,

31:36That I may carry it on my shoulder, and put it about me as a crown?

31:37At every step of mine I would pronounce it, and offer it as to a prince.

31:38If my land cry against me, and with it the furrows thereof mourn:

31:39If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, and have afflicted the soul of the tillers thereof:

31:40Let thistles grow up to me instead of wheat, and thorns instead of barley.