Job 30
v1
“But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I considered unworthy to put with my sheep dogs.
v2
Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished?
v3
They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.
v4
They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom tree are their food.
v5
They are driven out from among men. They cry after them as after a thief;
v6
So that they dwell in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
v7
They bray among the bushes. They are gathered together under the nettles.
v8
They are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men. They were flogged out of the land.
v9
“Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.
v10
They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don’t hesitate to spit in my face.
v11
For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have thrown off restraint before me.
v12
On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, They cast up against me their ways of destruction.
v13
They mar my path. They promote my destruction without anyone’s help.
v14
As through a wide breach they come. They roll themselves in amid the ruin.
v15
Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud.
v16
“Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold of me.
v17
In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.
v18
My garment is disfigured by great force. It binds me about as the collar of my tunic.
v19
He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.
v20
I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me.
v21
You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me.
v22
You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm.
v23
For I know that you will bring me to death, to the house appointed for all living.
v24
“However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
v25
Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy?
v26
When I looked for good, then evil came. When I waited for light, darkness came.
v27
My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest. Days of affliction have come on me.
v28
I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
v29
I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.
v30
My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.
v31
Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.