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 that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.
2 They are too weak to be any use to me; they're all worn-out.
Yea, whereto [should] the strength of their hands [profit] me, [men] in whom vigour hath perished?
3 Thin through hunger and want, they try to eat the dry ground in the dark, desolate wilderness.
Withered up through want and hunger, they flee into waste places long since desolate and desert:
4 There they pick desert herbs and the leaves of bushes, and eat the roots of broom trees.
They gather the salt-wort among the bushes, and the roots of the broom for their food.
5 They were driven out of the community.
They are driven forth from among [men] — they cry after them as after a thief —
6 People shouted after them as if they were thieves. They have to live in dangerous ravines, in caves and among the rocks.
To dwell in gloomy gorges, in caves of the earth and the rocks:
7 They shout out like animals among the bushes; they huddle together in the weeds for shelter.
They bray among the bushes; under the brambles they are gathered together:
8 They are foolish, nameless people that have been driven from the land.
Sons of fools, and sons of nameless sires, they are driven out of the land.
9 Yet now they mock me in their songs; I have become a joke to them!
And now I am their song, yea, I am their byword.
10 They despise and shun me; they don't hesitate to spit in my face.
They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, yea, they spare not to spit in my face.
11 God has made my bowstring loose and humbled me.
For he hath loosed my cord and afflicted me; so they cast off the bridle before me.
12 The rabble rise up against me, they send me running; like a city under siege they devise ways to destroy me.
At [my] right hand rise the young brood; they push away my feet, and raise up against me their pernicious ways;
13 They cut off my way of escape; they bring about my downfall and do this without anyone's help.
They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, without any to help them;
14 They come in through a wide breach; they rush in as the wall comes tumbling down.
They come in as through a wide breach: amid the confusion they roll themselves onward.
15 Terrors overcome me; my honor is blown away by the wind; my salvation vanishes like a cloud.
Terrors are turned against me; they pursue mine honour as the wind; and my welfare is passed away like a cloud.
16 And now my life is ebbing away; every day despair grips me.
And now my soul is poured out in me; days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
17 At night my bones are in agony; the pain gnaws at me and never stops.
The night pierceth through my bones [and detacheth them] from me, and my gnawing pains take no rest:
18 God grabs me roughly by my clothes; he pulls me by the collar of my shirt.
By their great force they have become my raiment; they bind me about as the collar of my coat.
19 He has thrown me in the mud; he has humbled me like dust and ashes.
He hath cast me into the mire, 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 unto thee, and thou answerest me not; I stand up, and thou lookest at me.
21 You have turned cruel to me; you use your power to make me suffer.
Thou art changed to a cruel one to me; with the strength of thy hand thou pursuest me.
22 You pick me up and blow me along in the wind; tossing me about in the whirlwind.
Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to be borne away, and dissolvest my substance.
23 I know you're taking me to my death, to the place where all the living go.
For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and into the house of assemblage for all living.
24 Who would want to kick a man when he is down, when they cry for help in their time of trouble?
Indeed, no prayer [availeth] when he stretcheth out [his] hand: though they cry when he destroyeth.
25 Didn't I weep for those having hard times? Didn't I grieve at what the poor suffered?
Did not I weep for him whose days were hard? was not my soul 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.
For I expected good, and there came evil; and I waited for light, but there came darkness.
27 Inside I am in turmoil, it never stops; I face days of despair.
My bowels well up, and rest not; days of affliction have confronted 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, I cry in the congregation.
29 I am like a brother to the jackals, a companion to owls.
I am become a brother to jackals, and a companion of ostriches.
30 My skin turns black on me; and my bones burn within me.
My skin is become black [and falleth] off me, and my bones are parched with heat.
31 My lyre only plays sad songs, and my pipe is the voice of those who weep.
My harp also is [turned] to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of weepers.
