Job 16:4

I too can speak as you do,

   Were you in my place,

String words together towards you,

   Shake my head over you.

 

I have taken a break from this as I mentally gear up for whatever is next. I have 25 verses until I finish the Amalgamation. I probably have never been this diligent about doing one each day as I near the finish. My original goal was to study the book of Job, and this Amalgamation of each verse was only the first step. Once I finish, I want to have a plan for what is next and get going with it.

‘Speak’ was also ‘talk’ and some versions carried a measure of quality. ‘You’ and ‘my’ were also ‘your soul’ and ‘my soul’.

‘String together’ was also ‘join together’, ‘make fine speeches’, ‘heap up’, ‘compose’, and ‘barrage’. ‘Shake’ was also ‘wag’.

Along the way, I have thought about publishing my outcomes to share. Having fallen so far behind with these one verse blogs makes that seem like an event much further in the future than I ever imagined. One of my goals through this was to give myself a mechanism to review the individual results based on a different perspective founded on time delay. It will probably have taken five years to complete the  Amalgamation and I am just starting chapter 16. Maybe another decade at that rate.

I met someone who liked to paint, and I told them how I gave up when I could not get ideas from my head to the canvas. She says she isn’t an artist and just paints what she sees in a picture. Puts a whole new perspective on why I wanted to paint. I have eight paintings by others hanging in this room. One is by my child, two are low quality vacation reminders, and the other three are what I always viewed as works of art where the artist was trying to convey some meaning. If they are just technical representations of what someone saw, then I have been wasting my time looking at them.

As I told my accountability partner, my study of Job was meant to be a way to share the concept of salvation through Christ to others and to encourage other believers. If the Amalgamation is just for me, then it will have been a waste. If these blogs end here in chapter 16, then the outcome will never be as large as it could otherwise. As the verse says (more or less), almost anyone can speak, anyone can shake their head, and almost everyone can string some words together. But the key is to use our brains to make the words we string together mean something to those around us in the condition they are now.  Big goal I am seeking with this upcoming plan. Pray for me.

Written 5/7/25, Posted 7/18/25, Job 378