Job 30
1 But now people much younger than me laugh at me; people whose fathers I would not put to work with my sheepdogs.
“But now they mock me, men younger than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to entrust with my sheep dogs.
2 They are too weak to be any use to me; they're all worn-out.
What use to me was the strength of their hands, since their vigor had left them?
3 Thin through hunger and want, they try to eat the dry ground in the dark, desolate wilderness.
Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.
4 There they pick desert herbs and the leaves of bushes, and eat the roots of broom trees.
They plucked mallow among the shrubs, and the roots of the broom tree were their food.
5 They were driven out of the community.
They were banished from among men, shouted down like thieves,
6 People shouted after them as if they were thieves. They have to live in dangerous ravines, in caves and among the rocks.
so that they lived on the slopes of the wadis, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
7 They shout out like animals among the bushes; they huddle together in the weeds for shelter.
They cried out among the shrubs and huddled beneath the nettles.
8 They are foolish, nameless people that have been driven from the land.
A senseless and nameless brood, they were driven off the land.
9 Yet now they mock me in their songs; I have become a joke to them!
And now they mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.
10 They despise and shun me; they don't hesitate to spit in my face.
They abhor me and keep far from me; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
11 God has made my bowstring loose and humbled me.
Because God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they have cast off restraint in my presence.
12 The rabble rise up against me, they send me running; like a city under siege they devise ways to destroy me.
The rabble arises at my right; they lay snares for my feet and build siege ramps against me.
13 They cut off my way of escape; they bring about my downfall and do this without anyone's help.
They tear up my path; they profit from my destruction, with no one to restrain them.
14 They come in through a wide breach; they rush in as the wall comes tumbling down.
They advance as through a wide breach; through the ruins they keep rolling in.
15 Terrors overcome me; my honor is blown away by the wind; my salvation vanishes like a cloud.
Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.
16 And now my life is ebbing away; every day despair grips me.
And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction grip me.
17 At night my bones are in agony; the pain gnaws at me and never stops.
Night pierces my bones, and my gnawing pains never rest.
18 God grabs me roughly by my clothes; he pulls me by the collar of my shirt.
With great force He grasps my garment; He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.
19 He has thrown me in the mud; he has humbled me like dust and ashes.
He throws me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.
20 God, I cry to you but you don't answer; I stand before you, but you don't even notice me.
I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.
21 You have turned cruel to me; you use your power to make me suffer.
You have ruthlessly turned on me; You oppose me with Your strong hand.
22 You pick me up and blow me along in the wind; tossing me about in the whirlwind.
You snatch me up into the wind and drive me before it; You toss me about in the storm.
23 I know you're taking me to my death, to the place where all the living go.
Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
24 Who would want to kick a man when he is down, when they cry for help in their time of trouble?
Yet no one stretches out his hand to a ruined man when he cries for help in his distress.
25 Didn't I weep for those having hard times? Didn't I grieve at what the poor suffered?
Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has my soul not grieved for the needy?
26 But when I looked for good, only evil came, and when I waited for the light, all that came was darkness.
But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.
27 Inside I am in turmoil, it never stops; I face days of despair.
I am churning within and cannot rest; days of affliction confront me.
28 I am so depressed; seeing the sun doesn't help. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
I go about blackened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
29 I am like a brother to the jackals, a companion to owls.
I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches.
30 My skin turns black on me; and my bones burn within me.
My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.
31 My lyre only plays sad songs, and my pipe is the voice of those who weep.
My harp is tuned to mourning and my flute to the sound of weeping.
