Job 30
1 But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.
But now the younger in time scorn me, whose fathers I would not have set with the dogs of my flock:
2 Yea, whereto [should] the strength of their hands [profit] me, [men] in whom vigour hath perished?
The strength of whose hands was to me as nothing, and they were thought unworthy of life itself.
3 Withered up through want and hunger, they flee into waste places long since desolate and desert:
Barren with want and hunger, who gnawed in the wilderness, disfigured with calamity and misery.
4 They gather the salt-wort among the bushes, and the roots of the broom for their food.
And they ate grass, and barks of trees, and the root of junipers was their food.
5 They are driven forth from among [men] — they cry after them as after a thief —
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 To dwell in gloomy gorges, in caves of the earth and the rocks:
They dwelt in the desert places of torrents, and in caves of earth, or upon the gravel.
7 They bray among the bushes; under the brambles they are gathered together:
They pleased themselves among these kind of things, and counted it delightful to be under the briers.
8 Sons of fools, and sons of nameless sires, they are driven out of the land.
The children of foolish and base men, and not appearing at all upon the earth.
9 And now I am their song, yea, I am their byword.
Now I am turned into their song, and am become their byword.
10 They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, yea, they spare not to spit in my face.
They abhor me, and flee far from me, and are not afraid to spit in my face.
11 For he hath loosed my cord and afflicted me; so they cast off the bridle before me.
For he hath opened his quiver, and hath afflicted me, and hath put a bridle into my mouth.
12 At [my] right hand rise the young brood; they push away my feet, and raise up against me their pernicious ways;
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 mar my path, they set forward my calamity, without any to help 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 come in as through a wide breach: amid the confusion they roll themselves onward.
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 against me; they pursue mine honour as the wind; and my welfare is passed away 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 in me; days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
And now my soul fadeth within myself, and the days of affliction possess me.
17 The night pierceth through my bones [and detacheth them] from me, and my gnawing pains take no rest:
In the night my bone is pierced with sorrows: and they that feed upon me, do not sleep.
18 By their great force they have become my raiment; they bind me about as the collar 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 He hath cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.
I am compared to dirt, and am likened to embers and ashes.
20 I cry unto thee, and thou answerest me not; I stand up, and thou lookest at me.
I cry to thee, and thou hearest me not: I stand up, and thou dost not regard me.
21 Thou art changed to a cruel one to me; with the strength of thy hand thou pursuest me.
Thou art changed to be cruel toward me, and in the hardness of thy hand thou art against me.
22 Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to be borne away, and dissolvest my substance.
Thou hast lifted me up, and set me as it were upon the wind, and thou hast mightily dashed me.
23 For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and into the house of assemblage for all living.
I know that thou wilt deliver me to death, where a house is appointed for every one that liveth.
24 Indeed, no prayer [availeth] when he stretcheth out [his] hand: though they cry when he destroyeth.
But yet thou stretchest not forth thy hand to their consumption: and if they shall fall down thou wilt save.
25 Did not I weep for him whose days were hard? was not my soul grieved for the needy?
I wept heretofore for him that was afflicted, and my soul had compassion on the poor.
26 For I expected good, and there came evil; and I waited for light, but there came darkness.
I expected good things, and evils are come upon me: I waited for light, and darkness broke out.
27 My bowels well up, and rest not; days of affliction have confronted 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, I cry in the congregation.
I went mourning without indignation; I rose up, and cried in the crowd.
29 I am become a brother to jackals, and a companion of ostriches.
I was the brother of dragons, and companion of ostriches.
30 My skin is become black [and falleth] off me, and my bones are parched with heat.
My skin is become black upon me, and my bones are dried up with heat.
31 My harp also is [turned] to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of weepers.
My harp is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of those that weep.
