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 the younger in time scorn me, whose fathers I would not have set with the dogs of my flock:
2 What use to me was the strength of their hands, since their vigor had left them?
The strength of whose hands was to me as nothing, and they were thought unworthy of life itself.
3 Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.
Barren with want and hunger, who gnawed in the wilderness, disfigured with calamity and misery.
4 They plucked mallow among the shrubs, and the roots of the broom tree were their food.
And they ate grass, and barks of trees, and the root of junipers was their food.
5 They were banished from among men, shouted down like thieves,
Who snatched up these things out of the valleys, and when they had found any of them, they ran to them with a cry.
6 so that they lived on the slopes of the wadis, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
They dwelt in the desert places of torrents, and in caves of earth, or upon the gravel.
7 They cried out among the shrubs and huddled beneath the nettles.
They pleased themselves among these kind of things, and counted it delightful to be under the briers.
8 A senseless and nameless brood, they were driven off the land.
The children of foolish and base men, and not appearing at all upon the earth.
9 And now they mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.
Now I am turned into their song, and am become their byword.
10 They abhor me and keep far from me; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
They abhor me, and flee far from me, and are not afraid to spit in my face.
11 Because God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they have cast off restraint in my presence.
For he hath opened his quiver, and hath afflicted me, and hath put a bridle into my mouth.
12 The rabble arises at my right; they lay snares for my feet and build siege ramps against me.
At the right hand of my rising, my calamities forthwith arose: they have overthrown my feet, and have overwhelmed me with their paths as with waves.
13 They tear up my path; they profit from my destruction, with no one to restrain them.
They have destroyed my ways, they have lain in wait against me, and they have prevailed, and there was none to help.
14 They advance as through a wide breach; through the ruins they keep rolling in.
They have rushed in upon me, as when a wall is broken, and a gate opened, and have rolled themselves down to my miseries.
15 Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.
I am brought to nothing: as a wind thou hast taken away my desire: and my prosperity hath passed away like a cloud.
16 And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction grip me.
And now my soul fadeth within myself, and the days of affliction possess me.
17 Night pierces my bones, and my gnawing pains never rest.
In the night my bone is pierced with sorrows: and they that feed upon me, do not sleep.
18 With great force He grasps my garment; He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.
With the multitude of them my garment is consumed, and they have girded me about, as with the collar of my coat.
19 He throws me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.
I am compared to dirt, and am likened to embers and ashes.
20 I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.
I cry to thee, and thou hearest me not: I stand up, and thou dost not regard me.
21 You have ruthlessly turned on me; You oppose me with Your strong hand.
Thou art changed to be cruel toward me, and in the hardness of thy hand thou art against me.
22 You snatch me up into the wind and drive me before it; You toss me about in the storm.
Thou hast lifted me up, and set me as it were upon the wind, and thou hast mightily dashed me.
23 Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
I know that thou wilt deliver me to death, where a house is appointed for every one that liveth.
24 Yet no one stretches out his hand to a ruined man when he cries for help in his distress.
But yet thou stretchest not forth thy hand to their consumption: and if they shall fall down thou wilt save.
25 Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has my soul not grieved for the needy?
I wept heretofore for him that was afflicted, and my soul had compassion on the poor.
26 But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.
I expected good things, and evils are come upon me: I waited for light, and darkness broke out.
27 I am churning within and cannot rest; days of affliction confront me.
My inner parts have boiled without any rest, the days of affliction have prevented me.
28 I go about blackened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
I went mourning without indignation; I rose up, and cried in the crowd.
29 I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches.
I was the brother of dragons, and companion of ostriches.
30 My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.
My skin is become black upon me, and my bones are dried up with heat.
31 My harp is tuned to mourning and my flute to the sound of weeping.
My harp is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of those that weep.
