Job 30

30But now they mock^j me,

men younger than I am,

whose fathers I would have refused to put

with my sheep dogs.

²What use to me was the strength of their hands?

Their vigor had left them.

³Emaciated from poverty and hunger,

they gnawed the dry land,

the desolate wasteland by night.

⁴They plucked mallow^Bk among the shrubs,

and the roots of the broom tree were their food.

⁵They were banished from human society;

people shouted at them as if they were thieves.

⁶They are living on the slopes of the wadis,

among the rocks and in holes in the ground.

⁷They bray among the shrubs;

they huddle beneath the thistles.

⁸Foolish^l men, without even a name.

They were forced to leave the land.

⁹Now I am mocked by their songs;^m

I have become an object of scorn to them.

¹⁰They despise me and keep their distance from me;ⁿ

they do not hesitate to spit^o in my face.

¹¹Because God has loosened my^C bowstring and oppressed me,

they have cast off restraint in my presence.^p

¹²The rabble^D rise up at my right;

they trap^E my feet

and construct their siege ramp^F against me.^q

¹³They tear up my path;

they contribute to my destruction,^r

without anyone to help them.

¹⁴They advance as through a gaping breach;

they keep rolling in through the ruins.^s

¹⁵Terrors^a are turned loose against me;

they chase my dignity away like the wind,

and my prosperity has passed by like a cloud.

¹⁶Now my life is poured out before me,

and days of suffering^b have seized me.

¹⁷Night pierces my bones,

but my gnawing pains never rest.^c

¹⁸My clothing is distorted with great force;

he chokes me by the neck of my garment.^A

¹⁹He throws me into the mud,

and I have become like dust and ashes.^d

²⁰I cry out to you for help, but you do not answer me;^e

when I stand up, you merely look at me.

²¹You have turned against me with cruelty;

you harass^f me with your strong hand.

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

you scatter me in the storm.^g

²³Yes, I know that you will lead me to death—

the place^h appointed for all who live.

²⁴Yet no one would stretch out his hand

against a ruined person^B

when he cries out to him for help

because of his distress.ⁱ

²⁵Have I not wept for those who have fallen on hard times?

Has my soul not grieved for the needy?^j

²⁶But when I hoped for good, evil came;

when I looked for light, darkness^k came.

²⁷I am churning within^C and cannot rest;

days of suffering confront me.

²⁸I walk about blackened, but not by the sun.^D

I stood in the assembly and cried out for help.

²⁹I have become a brother to jackals

and a companion of ostriches.

³⁰My skin blackens and flakes off,^E

and my bones burn with fever.^l

³¹My lyre is used for mourning

and my flute for the sound of weeping.^m