Job 30
1 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.
“But now they mock me, men younger than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to entrust with my sheep dogs.
2 Yes, why had I the strength of their hands? for them the full term [of life] was lost.
What use to me was the strength of their hands, since their vigor had left them?
3 [One is] childless in lack and famine, [such as] they that fled but lately the distress and misery of drought.
Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.
4 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.
They plucked mallow among the shrubs, and the roots of the broom tree were their food.
5 Thieves have risen up against me,
They were banished from among men, shouted down like thieves,
6 whose houses were the caves of the rocks, who lived under the wild shrubs.
so that they lived on the slopes of the wadis, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
7 They will cry out among the rustling [bushes].
They cried out among the shrubs and huddled beneath the nettles.
8 [They are] sons of fools and vile men, [whose] name and glory [are] quenched from off the earth.
A senseless and nameless brood, they were driven off the land.
9 But now I am their music, and they have me for a byword.
And now they mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.
10 And they stood aloof and abhorred me, and spared not to spit in my face.
They abhor me and keep far from me; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
11 For he has opened his quiver and afflicted me: they also have cast off the restraint of my presence.
Because God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they have cast off restraint in my presence.
12 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.
The rabble arises at my right; they lay snares for my feet and build siege ramps against me.
13 My paths are ruined; for they have stripped off my raiment: he has shot at me with his weapons.
They tear up my path; they profit from my destruction, with no one to restrain them.
14 And he has pleaded against me as he will: I am overwhelmed with pains.
They advance as through a wide breach; through the ruins they keep rolling in.
15 My pains return upon [me]; my hope is gone like the wind, and my safety as a cloud.
Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.
16 Even now my life shall be poured forth upon me; and days of anguish seize me.
And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction grip me.
17 And by night my bones are confounded; and my sinews are relaxed.
Night pierces my bones, and my gnawing pains never rest.
18 With great force [my disease] has taken hold of my garment: it has compassed me as the collar of my coat.
With great force He grasps my garment; He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.
19 And you have counted me as clay; my portion in dust and ashes.
He throws me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.
20 And I have cried to you, but you hear me not: but they stood still, and observed me.
I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.
21 They attacked me also without mercy: you have scourged me with a strong hand.
You have ruthlessly turned on me; You oppose me with Your strong hand.
22 And you have put me to grief, and have cast me away from safety.
You snatch me up into the wind and drive me before it; You toss me about in the storm.
23 For I know that death will destroy me: for the earth is the house [appointed] for every mortal.
Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
24 Oh then that I might lay hands upon myself, or at least ask another, and he should do this for me.
Yet no one stretches out his hand to a ruined man when he cries for help in his distress.
25 Yet I wept over every helpless man; I groaned when I saw a man in distress.
Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has my soul not grieved for the needy?
26 But I, when I waited for good things, behold, days of evils came the more upon me.
But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.
27 My belly boiled, and would not cease: the days of poverty prevented me.
I am churning within and cannot rest; days of affliction confront me.
28 I went mourning without restraint: and I have stood and cried out in the assembly.
I go about blackened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
29 I am become a brother of monsters, and a companion of ostriches.
I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches.
30 And my skin has been greatly blackened, and my bones are burned with heat.
My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.
31 My harp also has been turned into mourning, and my song into my weeping.
My harp is tuned to mourning and my flute to the sound of weeping.
