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 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, the strength of their hands, whereto should it profit me? men in whom ripe age is perished.
3 Thin through hunger and want, they try to eat the dry ground in the dark, desolate wilderness.
They are gaunt with want and famine; they gnaw the dry ground; in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.
4 There they pick desert herbs and the leaves of bushes, and eat the roots of broom trees.
They pluck salt-wort by the bushes; and the roots of the broom [are] their meat.
5 They were driven out of the community.
They are driven forth from the midst [of 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.
In the clefts of the valleys must they dwell, in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
7 They shout out like animals among the bushes; they huddle together in the weeds for shelter.
Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they are gathered together.
8 They are foolish, nameless people that have been driven from the land.
[They are] children of fools, yea, children of base men; they were scourged out of the land.
9 Yet now they mock me in their songs; I have become a joke to them!
And now I am become their song, yea, I am a byword unto them.
10 They despise and shun me; they don't hesitate to spit in my face.
They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and spare not to spit in my face.
11 God has made my bowstring loose and humbled me.
For he hath loosed his cord, and afflicted me, and they have 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.
Upon my right hand rise the rabble; they thrust aside my feet, and they cast up against me their ways of 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, [even] men that have no helper.
14 They come in through a wide breach; they rush in as the wall comes tumbling down.
As through a wide breach they come: in the midst of the ruin they roll 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 chase mine honour as the wind; and my welfare is passed away as 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 have taken hold upon me.
17 At night my bones are in agony; the pain gnaws at me and never stops.
In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the [pains] that gnaw me 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 disfigured: 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 answer me: 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 turned to be cruel to me: with the might of thy hand thou persecutest 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 thou dissolvest me in the storm.
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?
Surely against a ruinous heap he will not put forth his hand; though [it be] in his destruction, [one may utter] a cry because of these things.
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 needy?
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; 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 boil, and rest not; days of affliction are come upon me.
28 I am so depressed; seeing the sun doesn't help. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
I go mourning without 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 am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.
30 My skin turns black on me; and my bones burn within me.
My skin is black, [and falleth] from 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.
Therefore is my harp [turned] to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of them that weep.
