Immerse: Poets Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 322
310
IMMERSE
•
POETS
31:34–32:9
Have I feared the crowd
or the contempt of the masses,
so that I kept quiet and stayed indoors?
“If only someone would listen to me!
Look, I will sign my name to my defense.
Let the Almighty answer me.
Let my accuser write out the charges against me.
I would face the accusation proudly.
I would wear it like a crown.
For I would tell him exactly what I have done.
I would come before him like a prince.
“If my land accuses me
and all its furrows cry out together,
or if I have stolen its crops
or murdered its owners,
then let thistles grow on that land instead
of wheat,
and weeds instead of barley.”
Job’s words are ended.
Job’s three friends refused to reply further to him because he kept insisting
on his innocence.
Then Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite, of the clan of Ram, became angry.
He was angry because Job refused to admit that he had sinned and that
God was right in punishing him. He was also angry with Job’s three friends,
for they made God appear to be wrong by their inability to answer Job’s
arguments. Elihu had waited for the others to speak to Job because they
were older than he. But when he saw that they had no further reply, he
spoke out angrily. Elihu son of Barakel the Buzite said,
“I am young and you are old,
so I held back from telling you what I think.
I thought, ‘Those who are older should speak,
for wisdom comes with age.’
But there is a spirit within people,
the breath of the Almighty within them,
that makes them intelligent.
Sometimes the elders are not wise.
Sometimes the aged do not understand justice.
