Job 30

Chapter 30

Job’s Present State Is Humiliating

¹“But now those younger than I ^amock me,

Whose fathers I disdained 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 want and famine they are gaunt

Who gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation,

⁴Who pluck ¹mallow 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,

⁶So that they dwell in dreadful ¹valleys,

In holes of the earth and of the rocks.

⁷“Among the bushes they ¹cry out;

Under the nettles they are gathered together.

⁸“¹Fools, even ²those without a name,

They were scourged from the land.

⁹“And now I have become their ^1ataunt,

I have even become a ^bbyword to them.

¹⁰“They abhor me and stand aloof from me,

And they do not ¹refrain from ^aspitting at my face.

¹¹“Because ¹He has loosed ²His ³bowstring and ^aafflicted me,

They have cast off ^bthe bridle before me.

¹²“On the right hand their ¹brood arises;

They ^athrust aside my feet ^band build up against me their ways of destruction.

¹³“They ^abreak up my path,

They profit ¹from my destruction;

No one restrains them.

¹⁴“As through a wide breach they come,

¹Amid the tempest they roll on.

¹⁵“^aTerrors are turned against me;

They pursue my ¹honor as the wind,

And my ²prosperity has passed away ^blike a cloud.

¹⁶“And now ^amy soul is poured out ¹within me;

Days of affliction have seized me.

¹⁷“At night it pierces ^amy bones ¹within me,

And my gnawing pains take no rest.

¹⁸“By a great force my garment is ^adistorted;

It binds me about as the collar of my coat.

¹⁹“He has cast me into the ^amire,

And I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰“I ^acry out to You for help, but You do not answer me;

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

²¹“You have ¹become cruel to me;

With the might of Your hand You ^apersecute me.

²²“You ^alift me up to the wind and cause me to ride;

And You dissolve me in a storm.

²³“For I know that You ^awill bring me to death

And to the ^bhouse of meeting for all living.

²⁴“Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,

Or in his disaster therefore ^acry out for help?

²⁵“Have I not ^awept for the ¹one whose life is hard?

Was not my soul grieved for ^bthe needy?

²⁶“When I ^aexpected good, then evil came;

When I waited for light, ^bthen darkness came.

²⁷“¹I am seething ^awithin and cannot relax;

Days of affliction confront me.

²⁸“I go about ^1amourning without comfort;

I stand up in the assembly and ^bcry out for help.

²⁹“I have become a brother to ^ajackals

And a companion of ostriches.

³⁰“My ^askin turns black ¹on me,

And my ^bbones burn with ²fever.

³¹“Therefore my ^aharp ¹is turned to mourning,

And my flute to the sound of those who weep.