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 the younger in time scorn me, whose fathers I would not have set with the dogs of my flock:
2 Yes, why had I the strength of their hands? for them the full term [of life] was lost.
The strength of whose hands was to me as nothing, and they were thought unworthy of life itself.
3 [One is] childless in lack and famine, [such as] they that fled but lately the distress and misery of drought.
Barren with want and hunger, who gnawed in the wilderness, disfigured with calamity and misery.
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.
And they ate grass, and barks of trees, and the root of junipers was their food.
5 Thieves have risen up against me,
Who snatched up these things out of the valleys, and when they had found any of them, they ran to them with a cry.
6 whose houses were the caves of the rocks, who lived under the wild shrubs.
They dwelt in the desert places of torrents, and in caves of earth, or upon the gravel.
7 They will cry out among the rustling [bushes].
They pleased themselves among these kind of things, and counted it delightful to be under the briers.
8 [They are] sons of fools and vile men, [whose] name and glory [are] quenched from off the earth.
The children of foolish and base men, and not appearing at all upon the earth.
9 But now I am their music, and they have me for a byword.
Now I am turned into their song, and am become their byword.
10 And they stood aloof and abhorred me, and spared not to spit in my face.
They abhor me, and flee far from me, and are not afraid 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.
For he hath opened his quiver, and hath afflicted me, and hath put a bridle into my mouth.
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.
At the right hand of my rising, my calamities forthwith arose: they have overthrown my feet, and have overwhelmed me with their paths as with waves.
13 My paths are ruined; for they have stripped off my raiment: he has shot at me with his weapons.
They have destroyed my ways, they have lain in wait against me, and they have prevailed, and there was none to help.
14 And he has pleaded against me as he will: I am overwhelmed with pains.
They have rushed in upon me, as when a wall is broken, and a gate opened, and have rolled themselves down to my miseries.
15 My pains return upon [me]; my hope is gone like the wind, and my safety as a cloud.
I am brought to nothing: as a wind thou hast taken away my desire: and my prosperity hath passed away like a cloud.
16 Even now my life shall be poured forth upon me; and days of anguish seize me.
And now my soul fadeth within myself, and the days of affliction possess me.
17 And by night my bones are confounded; and my sinews are relaxed.
In the night my bone is pierced with sorrows: and they that feed upon me, do not sleep.
18 With great force [my disease] has taken hold of my garment: it has compassed me as the collar of my coat.
With the multitude of them my garment is consumed, and they have girded me about, as with the collar of my coat.
19 And you have counted me as clay; my portion in dust and ashes.
I am compared to dirt, and am likened to embers and ashes.
20 And I have cried to you, but you hear me not: but they stood still, and observed me.
I cry to thee, and thou hearest me not: I stand up, and thou dost not regard me.
21 They attacked me also without mercy: you have scourged me with a strong hand.
Thou art changed to be cruel toward me, and in the hardness of thy hand thou art against me.
22 And you have put me to grief, and have cast me away from safety.
Thou hast lifted me up, and set me as it were upon the wind, and thou hast mightily dashed me.
23 For I know that death will destroy me: for the earth is the house [appointed] for every mortal.
I know that thou wilt deliver me to death, where a house is appointed for every one that liveth.
24 Oh then that I might lay hands upon myself, or at least ask another, and he should do this for me.
But yet thou stretchest not forth thy hand to their consumption: and if they shall fall down thou wilt save.
25 Yet I wept over every helpless man; I groaned when I saw a man in distress.
I wept heretofore for him that was afflicted, and my soul had compassion on the poor.
26 But I, when I waited for good things, behold, days of evils came the more upon me.
I expected good things, and evils are come upon me: I waited for light, and darkness broke out.
27 My belly boiled, and would not cease: the days of poverty prevented me.
My inner parts have boiled without any rest, the days of affliction have prevented me.
28 I went mourning without restraint: and I have stood and cried out in the assembly.
I went mourning without indignation; I rose up, and cried in the crowd.
29 I am become a brother of monsters, and a companion of ostriches.
I was the brother of dragons, and companion of ostriches.
30 And my skin has been greatly blackened, and my bones are burned with heat.
My skin is become black upon me, and my bones are dried up with heat.
31 My harp also has been turned into mourning, and my song into my weeping.
My harp is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of those that weep.
