Testament of Job

Kohler1897 English translation, printed page 321

Testament of Job, 321. destroyed and torn down the temple of god. 15. Therefore shall I repay to him what he has done to the house ἐξ the great god. 16. Now come with me and we shall pillage all that is left in his house.’ 17. And they answered and said to him: “He has seven sons and three daughters. 18. Take heed Jest they flee into other lands and they may become our tyrants and then come over us with force and kill us.” 19. And he said: “Be not at all afraid. His flocks and his wealth have I destroyed by fire, and the rest have I captured, and behold, his children shall [ kill.” 20. And having spoken thus, he went and threw the house upon my children and killed them. 21. And my fellow-citizens, seeing that what was said by him had become true, came and pursued me and robbed me of all that was in my house. 22. And | saw with mine own eyes the pillage of my house, and men without culture and without honor sat at my table and on my couches, and I could not remonstrate against them. 23. For I was exhausted like a woman with her loins let loose from multi- tude of pains, remembering chiefly that this warfare had been predicted to me by the Lord through His angel. 24. And I became like one who, when seeing the rough sea and the adverse winds, while the lading of the vessel in mid-ocean is too heavy, casts the burden into the sea, saying: 25. “I wish to destroy all this only in order to come safely into the city so that I may take as profit the rescued ship and the best of my things.” 26. Thus did I manage my own affairs. 27. But there came another messenger and announced to me the ruin of my own children, and I was shaken with terror. 28. And I tore my clothes and said: “The Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken. As it hath deemed best to the Lord, thus it hath come to be. May the name of the Lord be blessed.” Chapter VY. 1. And when Satan saw that he could not put me to despair, he went and asked my body of the Lord in order to inflict plague on me, for the Evil one could not bear my patience. 2. Then the Lord delivered me into his hands to use my body as he wanted, but He gave him no power over Kohut, Semitic Studies. 21