Rhyming Job, Chapter 5

Rhyming Job, Chapter 5

“Call if you will, but who will answer you?
Which holy one, your question, you’d convey?
Resentment and vexation kill the fool.
The simple are, by jealously, then slain.

“I’ve seen the fool who’s slowly taking root
but suddenly, his house is cursed and ruined.
His children’s safety, very far away,
with no defender, crushed in court, are they.
His harvest, what the hungry have in store,
and take it even from among the thorns,
the thirsty ones, who, for his wealth, will pant.
Up from the soil, not there, grow hardship’s plants.
Where trouble starts? Not from the ground, arise.
Yet man is born to trouble ‘til he dies,
as surely as the sparks will, upward, fly.

“If I were you, I would appeal to God;
Before him, I would, honest, lay my cause.
The wonders he performs, no fathoming,
his miracles defy all numbering.
It’s for the earth, the rain that he provides;
he’s sending water on the countryside.
The lowly and downcast, he’ll set on high,
and those who mourn, to safety, he will lift.
He thwarts the plans, who make them with their craft,
so that their hands, achieving no success.
He catches wise men in their craftiness,
the wily’s schemes are what he’s swept away,
and darkness comes upon them in the day;
at noon they grope about as in the night.
He saves the needy from the sword inside
their mouth; the clutches of the powerful,
from them, he saves. The poor, with hope, are full,
injustice shuts its mouth. Now then, behold,

“blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore,
despise not, that, his discipline, the LORD’s.
For he will wound, but he binds up as well;
he shatters, but his hands will also heal.
He will deliver you from troubles, six;
in seven, evil, none, to you will stick.
In famine, he’ll redeem you, his reward.
in war, saves from the power of the sword.
You shall be hidden from the tongue, its lash,
no fear that, it, destruction will, you, smash.
Destruction, famine, at them will you laugh,
no fearing beasts on earth whose teeth will gnash.

“For, with the stones out in the field, in league,
you’ll be with them, out there as well, the beasts
will be at peace with you. What you perceive,
that it, your tent, entirely is at peace,
inspect your fold, possessions won’t, you, leave.
You’ll also know, your offspring multiply,
descendants, yours, like grass on earth grows high.
You’ll come down to your grave in ripe old age,
like sheaves are, in their season, gathered, saved.
Behold, this, we have searched; for it is true.
Now hear this all and know it for your good.”