Job 30
1 “But now they mock me, men younger than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to entrust with my sheep dogs.
But now those who are younger than I make sport of me; those whose fathers I would not have put with the dogs of my flocks.
2 What use to me was the strength of their hands, since their vigor had left them?
Of what use is the strength of their hands to me? all force is gone from them.
3 Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.
They are wasted for need of food, biting the dry earth; their only hope of life is in the waste land.
4 They plucked mallow among the shrubs, and the roots of the broom tree were their food.
They are pulling off the salt leaves from the brushwood, and making a meal of roots.
5 They were banished from among men, shouted down like thieves,
They are sent out from among their townsmen, men are crying after them as thieves
6 so that they lived on the slopes of the wadis, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
They have to get a resting-place in the hollows of the valleys, in holes of the earth and rocks.
7 They cried out among the shrubs and huddled beneath the nettles.
They make noises like asses among the brushwood; they get together under the thorns.
8 A senseless and nameless brood, they were driven off the land.
They are sons of shame, and of men without a name, who have been forced out of the land.
9 And now they mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.
And now I have become their song, and I am a word of shame to them.
10 They abhor me and keep far from me; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
I am disgusting to them; they keep away from me, and put marks of shame on me.
11 Because God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they have cast off restraint in my presence.
For he has made loose the cord of my bow, and put me to shame; he has sent down my flag to the earth before me.
12 The rabble arises at my right; they lay snares for my feet and build siege ramps against me.
The lines of his men of war put themselves in order, and make high their ways of destruction against me:
13 They tear up my path; they profit from my destruction, with no one to restrain them.
They have made waste my roads, with a view to my destruction; his bowmen come round about me;
14 They advance as through a wide breach; through the ruins they keep rolling in.
As through a wide broken place in the wall they come on, I am overturned by the shock of their attack.
15 Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.
Fears have come on me; my hope is gone like the wind, and my well-being like a cloud.
16 And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction grip me.
But now my soul is turned to water in me, days of trouble overtake me:
17 Night pierces my bones, and my gnawing pains never rest.
The flesh is gone from my bones, and they give me no rest; there is no end to my pains.
18 With great force He grasps my garment; He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.
With great force he takes a grip of my clothing, pulling me by the neck of my coat.
19 He throws me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.
Truly God has made me low, even to the earth, and I have become like dust.
20 I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.
You give no answer to my cry, and take no note of my prayer.
21 You have ruthlessly turned on me; You oppose me with Your strong hand.
You have become cruel to me; the strength of your hand is hard on me.
22 You snatch me up into the wind and drive me before it; You toss me about in the storm.
Lifting me up, you make me go on the wings of the wind; I am broken up by the storm.
23 Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
For I am certain that you will send me back to death, and to the meeting-place ordered for all living.
24 Yet no one stretches out his hand to a ruined man when he cries for help in his distress.
Has not my hand been stretched out in help to the poor? have I not been a saviour to him in his trouble?
25 Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has my soul not grieved for the needy?
Have I not been weeping for the crushed? and was not my soul sad for him who was in need?
26 But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.
For I was looking for good, and evil came; I was waiting for light, and it became dark.
27 I am churning within and cannot rest; days of affliction confront me.
My feelings are strongly moved, and give me no rest; days of trouble have overtaken me.
28 I go about blackened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
I go about in dark clothing, uncomforted; I get up in the public place, crying out for help.
29 I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches.
I have become a brother to the jackals, and go about in the company of ostriches.
30 My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.
My skin is black and dropping off me; and my bones are burning with the heat of my disease.
31 My harp is tuned to mourning and my flute to the sound of weeping.
And my music has been turned to sorrow, and the sound of my pipe into the noise of weeping.
