Job 30
1 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.
But now the younger in time scorn me, whose fathers I would not have set with the dogs of my flock:
2 Of what use is the strength of their hands to me? all force is gone from them.
The strength of whose hands was to me as nothing, and they were thought unworthy of life itself.
3 They are wasted for need of food, biting the dry earth; their only hope of life is in the waste land.
Barren with want and hunger, who gnawed in the wilderness, disfigured with calamity and misery.
4 They are pulling off the salt leaves from the brushwood, and making a meal of roots.
And they ate grass, and barks of trees, and the root of junipers was their food.
5 They are sent out from among their townsmen, men are crying after them as 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 They have to get a resting-place in the hollows of the valleys, in holes of the earth and rocks.
They dwelt in the desert places of torrents, and in caves of earth, or upon the gravel.
7 They make noises like asses among the brushwood; they get together under the thorns.
They pleased themselves among these kind of things, and counted it delightful to be under the briers.
8 They are sons of shame, and of men without a name, who have been forced out of the land.
The children of foolish and base men, and not appearing at all upon the earth.
9 And now I have become their song, and I am a word of shame to them.
Now I am turned into their song, and am become their byword.
10 I am disgusting to them; they keep away from me, and put marks of shame on me.
They abhor me, and flee far from me, and are not afraid to spit in my face.
11 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.
For he hath opened his quiver, and hath afflicted me, and hath put a bridle into my mouth.
12 The lines of his men of war put themselves in order, and make high their ways of destruction 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 have made waste my roads, with a view to my destruction; his bowmen come round about me;
They have destroyed my ways, they have lain in wait against me, and they have prevailed, and there was none to help.
14 As through a wide broken place in the wall they come on, I am overturned by the shock of their attack.
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 Fears have come on me; my hope is gone like the wind, and my well-being 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 But now my soul is turned to water in me, days of trouble overtake me:
And now my soul fadeth within myself, and the days of affliction possess me.
17 The flesh is gone from my bones, and they give me no rest; there is no end to my pains.
In the night my bone is pierced with sorrows: and they that feed upon me, do not sleep.
18 With great force he takes a grip of my clothing, pulling me by the neck of my coat.
With the multitude of them my garment is consumed, and they have girded me about, as with the collar of my coat.
19 Truly God has made me low, even to the earth, and I have become like dust.
I am compared to dirt, and am likened to embers and ashes.
20 You give no answer to my cry, and take no note of my prayer.
I cry to thee, and thou hearest me not: I stand up, and thou dost not regard me.
21 You have become cruel to me; the strength of your hand is hard on me.
Thou art changed to be cruel toward me, and in the hardness of thy hand thou art against me.
22 Lifting me up, you make me go on the wings of the wind; I am broken up by the storm.
Thou hast lifted me up, and set me as it were upon the wind, and thou hast mightily dashed me.
23 For I am certain that you will send me back to death, and to the meeting-place ordered for all living.
I know that thou wilt deliver me to death, where a house is appointed for every one that liveth.
24 Has not my hand been stretched out in help to the poor? have I not been a saviour to him in his trouble?
But yet thou stretchest not forth thy hand to their consumption: and if they shall fall down thou wilt save.
25 Have I not been weeping for the crushed? and was not my soul sad for him who was in need?
I wept heretofore for him that was afflicted, and my soul had compassion on the poor.
26 For I was looking for good, and evil came; I was waiting for light, and it became dark.
I expected good things, and evils are come upon me: I waited for light, and darkness broke out.
27 My feelings are strongly moved, and give me no rest; days of trouble have overtaken me.
My inner parts have boiled without any rest, the days of affliction have prevented me.
28 I go about in dark clothing, uncomforted; I get up in the public place, crying out for help.
I went mourning without indignation; I rose up, and cried in the crowd.
29 I have become a brother to the jackals, and go about in the company of ostriches.
I was the brother of dragons, and companion of ostriches.
30 My skin is black and dropping off me; and my bones are burning with the heat of my disease.
My skin is become black upon me, and my bones are dried up with heat.
31 And my music has been turned to sorrow, and the sound of my pipe into the noise of weeping.
My harp is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of those that weep.
