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 youngest have laughed me to scorn, now they reprove me in [their] turn, whose fathers I set at nothing; whom I did not deem worthy [to be with] my shepherd dogs.
2 Of what use is the strength of their hands to me? all force is gone from them.
Yes, why had I the strength of their hands? for them the full term [of life] was lost.
3 They are wasted for need of food, biting the dry earth; their only hope of life is in the waste land.
[One is] childless in lack and famine, [such as] they that fled but lately the distress and misery of drought.
4 They are pulling off the salt leaves from the brushwood, and making a meal of roots.
Who compass the salt places on the sounding [shore], who had salt [herbs] for their food, and were dishonorable and of no repute, in lack of every good thing; who also ate roots of trees by reason of great hunger.
5 They are sent out from among their townsmen, men are crying after them as thieves
Thieves have risen up against me,
6 They have to get a resting-place in the hollows of the valleys, in holes of the earth and rocks.
whose houses were the caves of the rocks, who lived under the wild shrubs.
7 They make noises like asses among the brushwood; they get together under the thorns.
They will cry out among the rustling [bushes].
8 They are sons of shame, and of men without a name, who have been forced 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, and I am a word of shame to them.
But now I am their music, and they have me for a byword.
10 I am disgusting to them; they keep away from me, and put marks of shame on me.
And they stood aloof and abhorred me, and spared not 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 has opened his quiver and afflicted me: they also have cast off the restraint of my presence.
12 The lines of his men of war put themselves in order, and make high their ways of destruction against me:
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 have made waste my roads, with a view to my destruction; his bowmen come round about me;
My paths are ruined; for they have stripped off my raiment: he has shot at me with his weapons.
14 As through a wide broken place in the wall they come on, I am overturned by the shock of their attack.
And he has pleaded against me as he will: I am overwhelmed with pains.
15 Fears have come on me; my hope is gone like the wind, and my well-being like a cloud.
My pains return upon [me]; my hope is gone like the wind, and my safety as a cloud.
16 But now my soul is turned to water in me, days of trouble overtake me:
Even now my life shall be poured forth upon me; and days of anguish seize me.
17 The flesh is gone from my bones, and they give me no rest; there is no end to my pains.
And by night my bones are confounded; and my sinews are relaxed.
18 With great force he takes a grip of my clothing, pulling me by the neck 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 Truly God has made me low, even to the earth, and I have become like dust.
And you have counted me as clay; my portion in dust and ashes.
20 You give no answer to my cry, and take no note of my prayer.
And I have cried to you, but you hear me not: but they stood still, and observed me.
21 You have become cruel to me; the strength of your hand is hard on me.
They attacked me also without mercy: you have scourged me with a strong hand.
22 Lifting me up, you make me go on the wings of the wind; I am broken up by the storm.
And you have put me to grief, and have cast me away from safety.
23 For I am certain that you will send me back to death, and to the meeting-place ordered for all living.
For I know that death will destroy me: for the earth is the house [appointed] for every mortal.
24 Has not my hand been stretched out in help to the poor? have I not been a saviour to him in his trouble?
Oh then that I might lay hands upon myself, or at least ask another, and he should do this for me.
25 Have I not been weeping for the crushed? and was not my soul sad for him who was in need?
Yet I wept over every helpless man; I groaned when I saw a man in distress.
26 For I was looking for good, and evil came; I was waiting for light, and it became dark.
But I, when I waited for good things, behold, days of evils came the more upon me.
27 My feelings are strongly moved, and give me no rest; days of trouble have overtaken me.
My belly boiled, and would not cease: the days of poverty 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 restraint: and I have stood and cried out in the assembly.
29 I have become a brother to the jackals, and go about in the company of ostriches.
I am become a brother of monsters, and a companion of ostriches.
30 My skin is black and dropping off me; and my bones are burning with the heat of my disease.
And my skin has been greatly blackened, and my bones are burned with heat.
31 And my music has been turned to sorrow, and the sound of my pipe into the noise of weeping.
My harp also has been turned into mourning, and my song into my weeping.
