Job 30

1 But now those who are younger than I make sport of me; those whose fathers I would not have put with the dogs of my flocks.

"But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.

2 Of what use is the strength of their hands to me? all force is gone from them.

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

3 They are wasted for need of food, biting the dry earth; their only hope of life is in the waste land.

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

4 They are pulling off the salt leaves from the brushwood, and making a meal of roots.

They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom are their food.

5 They are sent out from among their townsmen, men are crying after them as thieves

They are driven out from the midst of men. They cry after them as after a thief;

6 They have to get a resting-place in the hollows of the valleys, in holes of the earth and rocks.

So that they dwell in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

7 They make noises like asses among the brushwood; they get together under the thorns.

Among the bushes they bray; and under the nettles they are gathered together.

8 They are sons of shame, and of men without a name, who have been forced out of the land.

They are children of fools, yes, children of base men. They were flogged out of the land.

9 And now I have become their song, and I am a word of shame to them.

"Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.

10 I am disgusting to them; they keep away from me, and put marks of shame on me.

They abhor me, they keep their distance from me, and do not hesitate to spit in my face.

11 For he has made loose the cord of my bow, and put me to shame; he has sent down my flag to the earth before me.

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

12 The lines of his men of war put themselves in order, and make high their ways of destruction against me:

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

13 They have made waste my roads, with a view to my destruction; his bowmen come round about me;

They mar my path, They set forward my calamity, without anyone's help.

14 As through a wide broken place in the wall they come on, I am overturned by the shock of their attack.

As through a wide breach they come, in the midst of the ruin they roll themselves in.

15 Fears have come on me; my hope is gone like the wind, and my well-being like a cloud.

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

16 But now my soul is turned to water in me, days of trouble overtake me:

"Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold on me.

17 The flesh is gone from my bones, and they give me no rest; there is no end to my pains.

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

18 With great force he takes a grip of my clothing, pulling me by the neck of my coat.

By great force is my garment disfigured. It binds me about as the collar of my coat.

19 Truly God has made me low, even to the earth, and I have become like dust.

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

20 You give no answer to my cry, and take no note of my prayer.

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

21 You have become cruel to me; the strength of your hand is hard on me.

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

22 Lifting me up, you make me go on the wings of the wind; I am broken up by the storm.

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

23 For I am certain that you will send me back to death, and to the meeting-place ordered for all living.

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

24 Has not my hand been stretched out in help to the poor? have I not been a saviour to him in his trouble?

"However doesn't one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?

25 Have I not been weeping for the crushed? and was not my soul sad for him who was in need?

Did I not weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn't my soul grieved for the needy?

26 For I was looking for good, and evil came; I was waiting for light, and it became dark.

When I looked for good, then evil came; When I waited for light, there came darkness.

27 My feelings are strongly moved, and give me no rest; days of trouble have overtaken me.

My heart is troubled, and doesn't rest. Days of affliction have come on me.

28 I go about in dark clothing, uncomforted; I get up in the public place, crying out for help.

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

29 I have become a brother to the jackals, and go about in the company of ostriches.

I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.

30 My skin is black and dropping off me; and my bones are burning with the heat of my disease.

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

31 And my music has been turned to sorrow, and the sound of my pipe into the noise of weeping.

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