Job 30

Chapter 30

¹But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. ²Yea, whereto should the strength of their hands profit me, men in whom vigour hath perished? ³Withered up through want and hunger, they flee into waste places long since desolate and desert: ⁴They gather the salt-wort among the bushes, and the roots of the broom for their food. ⁵They are driven forth from among men —they cry after them as after a thief— ⁶To dwell in gloomy gorges, in caves of the earth and the rocks: ⁷They bray among the bushes; under the brambles they are gathered together: ⁸Sons of fools, and sons of nameless sires, they are driven out of the land. ⁹And now I am their song, yea, I am their byword. ¹⁰They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, yea, they spare not to spit in my face. ¹¹For he hath loosed my cord and afflicted me; so they cast off the bridle before me. ¹²At my right hand rise the young brood; they push away my feet, and raise up against me their pernicious ways; ¹³They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, without any to help them; ¹⁴They come in as through a wide breach: amid the confusion they roll themselves onward.

¹⁵Terrors are turned against me; they pursue mine honour as the wind; and my welfare is passed away like a cloud. ¹⁶And now my soul is poured out in me; days of affliction have taken hold upon me. ¹⁷The night pierceth through my bones and detacheth them from me, and my gnawing pains take no rest: ¹⁸By their great force they have become my raiment; they bind me about as the collar of my coat. ¹⁹He hath cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. ²⁰I cry unto thee, and thou answerest me not; I stand up, and thou lookest at me. ²¹Thou art changed to a cruel one to me; with the strength of thy hand thou pursuest me. ²²Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to be borne away, and dissolvest my substance. ²³For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and into the house of assemblage for all living. ²⁴Indeed, no prayer availeth when he stretcheth out his hand: though they cry when he destroyeth. ²⁵Did not I weep for him whose days were hard? was not my soul grieved for the needy? ²⁶For I expected good, and there came evil; and I waited for light, but there came darkness. ²⁷My bowels well up, and rest not; days of affliction have confronted me. ²⁸I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up, I cry in the congregation. ²⁹I am become a brother to jackals, and a companion of ostriches. ³⁰My skin is become black and falleth off me, and my bones are parched with heat. ³¹My harp also is turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of weepers.