Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

32 2 THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
"for the sin which thou hast committed.' And Job
"said unto them, 'I will recount unto you my deeds'
"in order that ye may examine into them: I tell
"you that He doth not bring night upon me ex-
"cept to exhaust me thereby until He cometh,
"and day passeth over me only that' I may toil
"[therein], and the number of my possessions which
"were in His hand were only as a lie, and I never
"shut my door upon me either by day or by
"night but that some [p. 187] stranger or pilgrim
"came, and not finding it open he turned away
"in shame and indignation. And I never spread
"a table for myself but that the wretched^ and
"the needy who sat thereat put their hands* in
"the dish of meat before me. I, who was the
"great man, am become even as the mean man,
"and the mean man hath become as a father unto
"me; I abase myself before and I bow down to the
"poor, to the feet of him that begged of me, and be-
job's speech "fore thosc who are wretched and miserable, having
friends.
" "doue no harm. And I used to give thanks unto
"God Almighty because of what He had given
"me in my wife, for she was to me as my sister,
"and I was to her= even as God.* O Lord, my
' Read 9°1(\C? ' The MS. has h'JH
3 Read Ji^A
: '^(D'^ 1
* The MS. writes h^liVaO' : 5 Read tX^tt.'/ :
^ According to Arabic tradition Job's wife (called by
someRahmat, the daughter of Ephraim, the son of Joseph, and
by others Makhir the daughter of Manasses,) tended him in his
sicknessj and supported him by her labour. One day the