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 have 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 might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?
3 Thin through hunger and want, they try to eat the dry ground in the dark, desolate wilderness.
For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.
4 There they pick desert herbs and the leaves of bushes, and eat the roots of broom trees.
Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.
5 They were driven out of the community.
They were driven forth from among men, (they cried 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 the clifts of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.
7 They shout out like animals among the bushes; they huddle together in the weeds for shelter.
Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.
8 They are foolish, nameless people that have been driven from the land.
They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.
9 Yet now they mock me in their songs; I have become a joke to them!
And now am I 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 flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.
11 God has made my bowstring loose and humbled me.
Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose 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.
Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up 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.
They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper.
14 They come in through a wide breach; they rush in as the wall comes tumbling down.
They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.
15 Terrors overcome me; my honor is blown away by the wind; my salvation vanishes like a cloud.
Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.
16 And now my life is ebbing away; every day despair grips me.
And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
17 At night my bones are in agony; the pain gnaws at me and never stops.
My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.
18 God grabs me roughly by my clothes; he pulls me by the collar of my shirt.
By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth 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 am 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 dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not.
21 You have turned cruel to me; you use your power to make me suffer.
Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against 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 ride upon it, 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 to the house appointed 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?
Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.
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 that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?
26 But when I looked for good, only evil came, and when I waited for the light, all that came was darkness.
When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.
27 Inside I am in turmoil, it never stops; I face days of despair.
My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction 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 the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.
29 I am like a brother to the jackals, a companion to owls.
I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
30 My skin turns black on me; and my bones burn within me.
My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned 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 organ into the voice of them that weep.
