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 that are] younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to 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.

Yea, whereto [might] the strength of their hands [profit] me, in whom old age was perished?

3 [One is] childless in lack and famine, [such as] they that fled but lately the distress and misery of drought.

For want and famine [they were] solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.

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.

Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots [for] their meat.

5 Thieves have risen up against me,

They were driven forth from among [men], (they cried after them as [after] a thief; )

6 whose houses were the caves of the rocks, who lived under the wild shrubs.

To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, [in] caves of the earth, and [in] the rocks.

7 They will cry out among the rustling [bushes].

Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.

8 [They are] sons of fools and vile men, [whose] name and glory [are] quenched from off the earth.

[They were] children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.

9 But now I am their music, and they have me for a byword.

And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.

10 And they stood aloof and abhorred me, and spared not to spit in my face.

They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not 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 he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me.

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.

Upon [my] right [hand] rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.

13 My paths are ruined; for they have stripped off my raiment: he has shot at me with his weapons.

They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper.

14 And he has pleaded against me as he will: I am overwhelmed with pains.

They came [upon me] as a wide breaking in [of waters: ] in the desolation they rolled themselves [upon me].

15 My pains return upon [me]; my hope is gone like the wind, and my safety as a cloud.

Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as 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 upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.

17 And by night my bones are confounded; and my sinews are relaxed.

My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.

18 With great force [my disease] has taken hold of my garment: it has compassed me as the collar of my coat.

By the great force [of my disease] is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.

19 And you have counted me as clay; my portion in dust and ashes.

He hath cast me into the mire, and I am 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 unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me [not].

21 They attacked me also without mercy: you have scourged me with a strong hand.

Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me.

22 And you have put me to grief, and have cast me away from safety.

Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride [upon it], and dissolvest my substance.

23 For I know that death will destroy me: for the earth is the house [appointed] for every mortal.

For I know [that] thou wilt bring me [to] death, and [to] the house appointed for all living.

24 Oh then that I might lay hands upon myself, or at least ask another, and he should do this for me.

Howbeit he will not stretch out [his] hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.

25 Yet I wept over every helpless man; I groaned when I saw a man in distress.

Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was [not] my soul grieved for the poor?

26 But I, when I waited for good things, behold, days of evils came the more upon me.

When I looked for good, then evil came [unto me: ] and when I waited for light, there came darkness.

27 My belly boiled, and would not cease: the days of poverty prevented me.

My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.

28 I went mourning without restraint: and I have stood and cried out in the assembly.

I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, [and] I cried in the congregation.

29 I am become a brother of monsters, and a companion of ostriches.

I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.

30 And my skin has been greatly blackened, and my bones are burned with heat.

My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.

31 My harp also has been turned into mourning, and my song into my weeping.

My harp also is [turned] to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.