Job 30
1 “And now, laughed at me, Have the younger in days than I, Whose fathers I have loathed to 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 Also—the power of their hands, why [is it] to me? On them old age has perished.
Yes, why had I the strength of their hands? for them the full term [of life] was lost.
3 With want and with harsh famine, They are gnawing a dry place [in] the recent night, [In] desolation and ruin,
[One is] childless in lack and famine, [such as] they that fled but lately the distress and misery of drought.
4 Those cropping mallows near a shrub, And their food [is] root of broom trees.
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 are cast out from the midst (They shout against them as a thief),
Thieves have risen up against me,
6 To dwell in a frightful place of valleys, Holes of earth and clefts.
whose houses were the caves of the rocks, who lived under the wild shrubs.
7 They groan among shrubs, They are gathered together under nettles.
They will cry out among the rustling [bushes].
8 Sons of folly—even sons without name, They have been struck from the land.
[They are] sons of fools and vile men, [whose] name and glory [are] quenched from off the earth.
9 And now, I have been their song, And I am to them for a byword.
But now I am their music, and they have me for a byword.
10 They have detested me, They have kept far from me, And from before me have not spared to spit.
And they stood aloof and abhorred me, and spared not to spit in my face.
11 Because He loosed His cord and afflicts me, And the bridle from before me, They have cast away.
For he has opened his quiver and afflicted me: they also have cast off the restraint of my presence.
12 A brood arises on the right hand, They have cast away my feet, And they raise up against me, Their paths of calamity.
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 have broken down my path, They profit by my calamity: He has no helper.
My paths are ruined; for they have stripped off my raiment: he has shot at me with his weapons.
14 They come as a wide breach, Under the desolation have rolled themselves.
And he has pleaded against me as he will: I am overwhelmed with pains.
15 He has turned terrors against me, It pursues my abundance as the wind, And as a thick cloud, My safety has passed away.
My pains return upon [me]; my hope is gone like the wind, and my safety as a cloud.
16 And now, in me my soul pours itself out, Days of affliction seize me.
Even now my life shall be poured forth upon me; and days of anguish seize me.
17 [At] night my bone has been pierced in me, And my gnawing [pain] does not lie down.
And by night my bones are confounded; and my sinews are relaxed.
18 By the abundance of power, Is my clothing changed, As the mouth of my coat it girds me.
With great force [my disease] has taken hold of my garment: it has compassed me as the collar of my coat.
19 Casting me into mire, And I have become like dust and ashes.
And you have counted me as clay; my portion in dust and ashes.
20 I cry to You, And You do not answer me, I have stood, and You consider me.
And I have cried to you, but you hear me not: but they stood still, and observed me.
21 You are turned to be fierce to me, With the strength of Your hand, You oppress me.
They attacked me also without mercy: you have scourged me with a strong hand.
22 You lift me up, You cause me to ride on the wind, And You melt—You level me.
And you have put me to grief, and have cast me away from safety.
23 For I have known You bring me back [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 Surely not against the heap Does He send forth the hand, Though they have safety in its ruin.
Oh then that I might lay hands upon myself, or at least ask another, and he should do this for me.
25 Did I not weep for him whose day is hard? My soul has grieved for the needy.
Yet I wept over every helpless man; I groaned when I saw a man in distress.
26 When I expected good, then comes evil, And I wait for light, and darkness comes.
But I, when I waited for good things, behold, days of evils came the more upon me.
27 My bowels have boiled, and have not ceased, Days of affliction have gone before me.
My belly boiled, and would not cease: the days of poverty prevented me.
28 I have gone mourning without the sun, I have risen, I cry in an assembly.
I went mourning without restraint: and I have stood and cried out in the assembly.
29 I have been a brother to dragons, And a companion to daughters of the ostrich.
I am become a brother of monsters, and a companion of ostriches.
30 My skin has been black on me, And my bone has burned from heat,
And my skin has been greatly blackened, and my bones are burned with heat.
31 And my harp becomes mourning, And my pipe the sound of weeping.”
My harp also has been turned into mourning, and my song into my weeping.
