Job 30

30But now they mock ^eme,

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 ^fgamong the shrubs,

and the roots of the broom tree were their food.

⁵They were expelled 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 ^hmen, without even a name.

They were forced to leave the land.

⁹Now I am mocked by their songs; ⁱ

I have become an object of scorn to them.

¹⁰They despise me and keep their distance from me; ^j

they do not hesitate to spit ^kin my face.

¹¹Because God has loosened my ^lbowstring and oppressed me,

they have cast off restraint in my presence. ^m

¹²The rabble ⁿrise up at my right;

they trap ^omy feet

and construct their siege ramp ^pagainst 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 ^tare 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 my eyes,

and days of suffering ^uhave seized me.

¹⁷Night pierces my bones,

but my gnawing pains never rest. ^v

¹⁸My clothing is distorted with great force;

He chokes me by the neck of my garment. ^w

¹⁹He throws me into the mud,

and I have become like dust and ashes. ^x

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

when I stand up, You merely look at me.

²¹You have turned against me with cruelty;

You harass ^zme with Your strong hand.

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

You scatter me in the storm. ^a

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

the place ^bappointed for all who live.

²⁴Yet no one would stretch out his hand

against a ruined man ^c

when he cries out to him for help

because of his distress. ^d

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

Has my soul not grieved for the needy? ^e

²⁶But when I hoped for good, evil came;

when I looked for light, darkness ^fcame.

²⁷I am churning within ^gand cannot rest;

days of suffering confront me.

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

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, ⁱ

and my bones burn with fever. ^j

³¹My lyre is used for mourning

and my flute for the sound of weeping. ^k