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 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 They are too weak to be any use to me; they're all worn-out.
Yes, why had I the strength of their hands? for them the full term [of life] was lost.
3 Thin through hunger and want, they try to eat the dry ground in the dark, desolate wilderness.
[One is] childless in lack and famine, [such as] they that fled but lately the distress and misery of drought.
4 There they pick desert herbs and the leaves of bushes, and eat the roots of broom trees.
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.
5 They were driven out of the community.
Thieves have risen up against me,
6 People shouted after them as if they were thieves. They have to live in dangerous ravines, in caves and among the rocks.
whose houses were the caves of the rocks, who lived under the wild shrubs.
7 They shout out like animals among the bushes; they huddle together in the weeds for shelter.
They will cry out amongst the rustling [bushes].
8 They are foolish, nameless people that have been driven from the land.
[They are] sons of fools and vile men, [whose] name and glory [are] quenched from off the earth.
9 Yet now they mock me in their songs; I have become a joke to them!
But now I am their music, and they have me for a byword.
10 They despise and shun me; they don't hesitate to spit in my face.
And they stood aloof and abhorred me, and spared not to spit in my face.
11 God has made my bowstring loose and humbled me.
For he has opened his quiver and afflicted me: they also have cast off the restraint of my presence.
12 The rabble rise up against me, they send me running; like a city under siege they devise ways to destroy 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 cut off my way of escape; they bring about my downfall and do this without anyone's help.
My paths are ruined; for they have stripped off my raiment: he has shot at me with his weapons.
14 They come in through a wide breach; they rush in as the wall comes tumbling down.
And he has pleaded against me as he will: I am overwhelmed with pains.
15 Terrors overcome me; my honor is blown away by the wind; my salvation vanishes like a cloud.
My pains return upon [me]; my hope is gone like the wind, and my safety as a cloud.
16 And now my life is ebbing away; every day despair grips me.
Even now my life shall be poured forth upon me; and days of anguish seize me.
17 At night my bones are in agony; the pain gnaws at me and never stops.
And by night my bones are confounded; and my sinews are relaxed.
18 God grabs me roughly by my clothes; he pulls me by the collar of my shirt.
With great force [my disease] has taken hold of my garment: it has compassed me as the collar of my coat.
19 He has thrown me in the mud; he has humbled me like dust and ashes.
And you have counted me as clay; my portion in 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.
And I have cried to you, but you hear me not: but they stood still, and observed me.
21 You have turned cruel to me; you use your power to make me suffer.
They attacked me also without mercy: you have scourged me with a strong hand.
22 You pick me up and blow me along in the wind; tossing me about in the whirlwind.
And you have put me to grief, and have cast me away from safety.
23 I know you're taking me to my death, to the place where all the living go.
For I know that death will destroy me: for the earth is the house [appointed] for every mortal.
24 Who would want to kick a man when he is down, when they cry for help in their time of trouble?
Oh then that I might lay hands upon myself, or at least ask another, and he should do this for me.
25 Didn't I weep for those having hard times? Didn't I grieve at what the poor suffered?
Yet I wept over every helpless man; I groaned when I saw a man in distress.
26 But when I looked for good, only evil came, and when I waited for the light, all that came was darkness.
But I, when I waited for good things, behold, days of evils came the more upon me.
27 Inside I am in turmoil, it never stops; I face days of despair.
My belly boiled, and would not cease: the days of poverty prevented me.
28 I am so depressed; seeing the sun doesn't help. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
I went mourning without restraint: and I have stood and cried out in the assembly.
29 I am like a brother to the jackals, a companion to owls.
I am become a brother of monsters, and a companion of ostriches.
30 My skin turns black on me; and my bones burn within me.
And my skin has been greatly blackened, and my bones are burnt with heat.
31 My lyre only plays sad songs, and my pipe is the voice of those who weep.
My harp also has been turned into mourning, and my song into my weeping.
