Job 30

Job’s Present State Is Humiliating

1 "But now those who are younger than I mock me,

Whose fathers I refused to put with the dogs of my flock.

2 "Indeed, what good was the strength of their hands to me?

Vigor had perished from them.

3 "From poverty and famine they are gaunt,

They who gnaw at the dry ground by night in waste and desolation,

4 Who pluck saltweed by the bushes,

And whose food is the root of the broom shrub.

5 "They are driven from the community;

They shout against them as against a thief,

6 So that they live on the slopes of ravines,

In holes in the ground and among the rocks.

7 "Among the bushes they *30:7 Or braycry out;

Under the weeds they are gathered together.

8 "Worthless *30:8 Lit sonsfellows, even *30:8 Lit sonsthose without a name,

They were cast out from the land.

9 "And now I have become their *30:9 Lit songtaunt,

And I have become a *30:9 I.e., prob. a word of insultbyword to them.

10 "They loathe me and stand aloof from me,

And they do not *30:10 Lit withhold spit from my facerefrain from spitting in my face.

11 "Because He has undone *30:11 Some mss Hismy *30:11 Or cordbowstring and afflicted me,

They have cast off the bridle before me.

12 "On the right hand their *30:12 Or youth arisemob arises;

They push aside my feet and pile up their ways of destruction against me.

13 "They break up my path,

They promote my destruction;

No one restrains them.

14 "As through a wide gap they come,

* 30:14 Lit Under Amid the storm they roll on.

15 "Sudden terrors are turned upon me;

They chase away my dignity like the wind,

And my *30:15 Or welfareprosperity has passed away like a cloud.

16 "And now my soul is poured out *30:16 Lit uponwithin me;

Days of misery have seized me.

17 "At night it pierces my bones *30:17 Lit from uponwithin me,

And my gnawing pains do not rest.

18 "By a great force my garment is distorted;

It ties me up like the collar of my coat.

19 "He has thrown me into the mire,

And I have become like dust and ashes.

20 "I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer me;

I stand up, and You turn Your attention against me.

21 "You have *30:21 Lit turned to bebecome cruel to me;

With the strength of Your hand You persecute me.

22 "You lift me up to the wind and make me ride it;

And You dissolve me in a storm.

23 "For I know that You will bring me to death,

And to the house of meeting for all living.

24 "Yet does one in a heap of ruins not reach out with his hand,

Or in his disaster does he not cry out for help?

25 "Have I not wept for the *30:25 Lit hard of dayone whose life is hard?

Was my soul not grieved for the needy?

26 "When I expected good, evil came;

When I waited for light, darkness came.

27 "*30:27 Lit My inward parts are boilingI am seething within and cannot rest;

Days of misery confront me.

28 "I go about *30:28 Or blackened, but not by the heat of the sunmourning without comfort;

I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help.

29 "I have become a brother to jackals,

And a companion of ostriches.

30 "My skin turns black *30:30 Lit from uponon me,

And my bones burn with *30:30 Lit heatfever.

31 "Therefore my harp *30:31 Lit becomesis turned to mourning,

And my flute to the sound of those who weep.