Job 30
1 But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.
But now the youngest have laughed me to scorn, now they reprove me in [their] turn, whose fathers I set at nought; whom I did not deem worthy [to be with] my shepherd dogs.
2 Yea, the strength of their hands, to what should it profit me? Men in whom ripe age is perished.
Yea, why had I the strength of their hands? for them the full term [of life] was lost.
3 They are gaunt with want and famine. They gnaw the dry ground in the gloom of waste and desolation.
[One is] childless in want and famine, [such as] they that fled but lately the distress and misery of drought.
4 They pluck mallows by the bushes, and the roots of the juniper are their food.
Who compass the salt places on the sounding [shore], who had salt [herbs] for their food, and were dishonorable and of no repute, in want of every good thing; who also ate roots of trees by reason of great hunger.
5 They are driven forth from the midst of men. They cry out after them as after a thief,
Thieves have risen up against me,
6 so that they dwell in frightful valleys, in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
whose houses were the caves of the rocks, who lived under the wild shrubs.
7 Among the bushes they bray, under the nettles they are gathered together.
They will cry out among the rustling [bushes].
8 They are sons of fools, yea, sons of base men. They were scourged out of the land.
[They are] sons of fools and vile men, [whose] name and glory [are] quenched from off the earth.
9 And now I have become their song, Yea, I am a byword to them.
But now I am their music, and they have me for a by-word.
10 They abhor me. They stand aloof from me, and do not spare to spit in my face.
And they stood aloof and abhorred me, and spared not to spit in my face.
11 For he has loosed his cord, and afflicted me. And they have cast off the bridle before me.
For he has opened his quiver and afflicted me: they also have cast off the restraint of my presence.
12 Upon my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, and they cast up against me their ways of destruction.
They have risen up against [me] on the right hand of [their] offspring; they have stretched out their foot, and directed against me the ways of their destruction.
13 They mar my path. They set forward my calamity, even men who have no helper.
My paths are ruined; for they have stripped off my raiment: he has shot at me with his weapons.
14 As through a wide breach they come. In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me.
And he has pleaded against me as he will: I am overwhelmed with pains.
15 Terrors are turned upon me. They chase my honor as the wind, and my welfare is passed away as a cloud.
My pains return upon [me]; my hope is gone like the wind, and my safety as a cloud.
16 And now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
Even now my life shall be poured forth upon me; and days of anguish seize me.
17 In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.
And by night my bones are confounded; and my sinews are relaxed.
18 By the great force my garment is disfigured. It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
With great force [my disease] has taken hold of my garment: it has compassed me as the collar of my coat.
19 He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.
And thou hast counted me as clay; my portion in dust and ashes.
20 I cry to thee, and thou do not answer me. I stand up, and thou gaze at me.
And I have cried to thee, but thou hearest me not: but they stood still, and observed me.
21 Thou have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of thy hand thou persecute me.
They attacked me also without mercy: thou hast scourged me with a strong hand.
22 Thou lift me up to the wind. Thou cause me to ride upon it, and thou disintegrate me in the storm.
And thou hast put me to grief, and hast cast me away from safety.
23 For I know that thou will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.
For I know that death will destroy me: for the earth is the house [appointed] for every mortal.
24 However does not a man stretch out the hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
Oh then that I might lay hands upon myself, or at least ask another, and he should do this for me.
25 Did I not weep for him who was in trouble? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
Yet I wept over every helpless man; I groaned when I saw a man in distress.
26 When I looked for good, then evil came. And when I waited for light, there came darkness.
But I, when I waited for good things, behold, days of evils came the more upon me.
27 My heart is troubled, and does not rest. Days of affliction have come upon me.
My belly boiled, and would not cease: the days of poverty prevented me.
28 I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
I went mourning without restraint: and I have stood and cried out in the assembly.
29 I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.
I am become a brother of monsters, and a companion of ostriches.
30 My skin is black, and falls from me. And my bones are burned with heat.
And my skin has been greatly blackened, and my bones are burned with heat.
31 Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.
My harp also has been turned into mourning, and my song into my weeping.
