Job 30
1 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.
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 Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?
Yes, why had I the strength of their hands? for them the full term [of life] was lost.
3 For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.
[One is] childless in lack and famine, [such as] they that fled but lately the distress and misery of drought.
4 Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.
Who compass the salt places on the sounding [shore], who had salt [herbs] for their food, and were dishonorable 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 forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief; )
Thieves have risen up against me,
6 To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.
whose houses were the caves of the rocks, who lived under the wild shrubs.
7 Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.
They will cry out among the rustling [bushes].
8 They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.
[They are] sons of fools and vile men, [whose] name and glory [are] quenched from off the earth.
9 And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.
But now I am their music, and they have me for a byword.
10 They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.
And they stood aloof and abhorred me, and spared not to spit in my face.
11 Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me.
For he has opened his quiver and afflicted me: they also have cast off the restraint of my presence.
12 Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.
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 mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper.
My paths are ruined; for they have stripped off my raiment: he has shot at me with his weapons.
14 They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.
And he has pleaded against me as he will: I am overwhelmed with pains.
15 Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.
My pains return upon [me]; my hope is gone like the wind, and my safety as a cloud.
16 And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
Even now my life shall be poured forth upon me; and days of anguish seize me.
17 My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.
And by night my bones are confounded; and my sinews are relaxed.
18 By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.
With great force [my disease] has taken hold of my garment: it has compassed me as the collar of my coat.
19 He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.
And you have counted me as clay; my portion in dust and ashes.
20 I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not.
And I have cried to you, but you hear me not: but they stood still, and observed me.
21 Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me.
They attacked me also without mercy: you have scourged me with a strong hand.
22 Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance.
And you have put me to grief, and have cast me away from safety.
23 For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.
For I know that death will destroy me: for the earth is the house [appointed] for every mortal.
24 Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.
Oh then that I might lay hands upon myself, or at least ask another, and he should do this for me.
25 Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?
Yet I wept over every helpless man; I groaned when I saw a man in distress.
26 When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.
But I, when I waited for good things, behold, days of evils came the more upon me.
27 My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.
My belly boiled, and would not cease: the days of poverty prevented me.
28 I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.
I went mourning without restraint: and I have stood and cried out in the assembly.
29 I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
I am become a brother of monsters, and a companion of ostriches.
30 My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.
And my skin has been greatly blackened, and my bones are burned with heat.
31 My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.
My harp also has been turned into mourning, and my song into my weeping.
