Immerse: Poets Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 320
308
IMMERSE
•
POETS
My heart is troubled and restless.
Days of suffering torment me.
I walk in gloom, without sunlight.
I stand in the public square and cry for help.
Instead, I am considered a brother to jackals
and a companion to owls.
My skin has turned dark,
and my bones burn with fever.
My harp plays sad music,
and my flute accompanies those who weep.
“I made a covenant with my eyes
not to look with lust at a young woman.
For what has God above chosen for us?
What is our inheritance from the Almighty on high?
Isn’t it calamity for the wicked
and misfortune for those who do evil?
Doesn’t he see everything I do
and every step I take?
“Have I lied to anyone
or deceived anyone?
Let God weigh me on the scales of justice,
for he knows my integrity.
If I have strayed from his pathway,
or if my heart has lusted for what my eyes have seen,
or if I am guilty of any other sin,
then let someone else eat the crops I have planted.
Let all that I have planted be uprooted.
“If my heart has been seduced by a woman,
or if I have lusted for my neighbor’s wife,
then let my wife serve another man;
let other men sleep with her.
For lust is a shameful sin,
a crime that should be punished.
It is a fire that burns all the way to hell.
It would wipe out everything I own.
“If I have been unfair to my male or female
servants
when they brought their complaints to me,
how could I face God?
What could I say when he questioned me?
30:27–31:14
