Job 30

1verse“But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I considered unworthy to put with my sheep dogs.

2verseOf what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished?

3verseThey are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.

4verseThey pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom tree are their food.

5verseThey are driven out from among men. They cry after them as after a thief,

6verseso that they live in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

7verseThey bray among the bushes. They are gathered together under the nettles.

8verseThey are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men. They were flogged out of the land.

9verse“Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.

10verseThey abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don’t hesitate to spit in my face.

11verseFor he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have thrown off restraint before me.

12verseOn my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet. They cast their ways of destruction up against me.

13verseThey mar my path. They promote my destruction without anyone’s help.

14verseAs through a wide breach they come. They roll themselves in amid the ruin.

15verseTerrors have turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud.

16verse“Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold of me.

17verseIn the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.

18verseMy garment is disfigured by great force. It binds me about as the collar of my tunic.

19verseHe has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.

20verseI cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me.

21verseYou have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me.

22verseYou lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm.

23verseFor I know that you will bring me to death, to the house appointed for all living.

24verse“However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?

25verseDidn’t I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy?

26verseWhen I looked for good, then evil came. When I waited for light, darkness came.

27verseMy heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest. Days of affliction have come on me.

28verseI go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.

29verseI am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.

30verseMy skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.

31verseTherefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.