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