Job 30

30“But now they mock me,^z

men younger than I,

whose fathers I would have disdained

to put with my sheep dogs.^a

²Of what use was the strength of their hands to me,

since their vigor had gone from them?

³Haggard from want and hunger,

they roamed^a the parched land^b

in desolate wastelands^c at night.^d

⁴In the brush they gathered salt herbs,^e

and their food^b was the root of the broom bush.^f

⁵They were banished from human society,

shouted at as if they were thieves.

⁶They were forced to live in the dry stream beds,

among the rocks and in holes in the ground.^g

⁷They brayed^h among the bushesⁱ

and huddled in the undergrowth.

⁸A base and nameless brood,^j

they were driven out of the land.^k

⁹“And now those young men mock me^l in song;^m

I have become a bywordⁿ among them.

¹⁰They detest me^o and keep their distance;

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

¹¹Now that God has unstrung my bow^q and afflicted me,^r

they throw off restraint^s in my presence.

¹²On my right^t the tribe^c attacks;

they lay snares^u for my feet,^v

they build their siege ramps against me.^w

¹³They break up my road;^x

they succeed in destroying me.^y

‘No one can help him,’ they say.

¹⁴They advance as through a gaping breach;^z

amid the ruins they come rolling in.

¹⁵Terrors^a overwhelm me;^b

my dignity is driven away as by the wind,

my safety vanishes like a cloud.^c

¹⁶“And now my life ebbs away;^d

days of suffering grip me.^e

¹⁷Night pierces my bones;

my gnawing pains never rest.^f

¹⁸In his great power^g God becomes like clothing to me^d;

he binds me like the neck of my garment.

¹⁹He throws me into the mud,^h

and I am reduced to dust and ashes.ⁱ

²⁰“I cry out to you,^j God, but you do not answer;^k

I stand up, but you merely look at me.

²¹You turn on me ruthlessly;^l

with the might of your hand^m you attack me.ⁿ

²²You snatch me up and drive me before the wind;^o

you toss me about in the storm.^p

²³I know you will bring me down to death,^q

to the place appointed for all the living.^r

²⁴“Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man^s

when he cries for help in his distress.^t

²⁵Have I not wept for those in trouble?^u

Has not my soul grieved for the poor?^v

²⁶Yet when I hoped for good, evil came;

when I looked for light, then came darkness.^w

²⁷The churning inside me never stops;^x

days of suffering confront me.^y

²⁸I go about blackened,^z but not by the sun;

I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.^a

²⁹I have become a brother of jackals,^b

a companion of owls.^c

³⁰My skin grows black^d and peels;^e

my body burns with fever.^f

³¹My lyre is tuned to mourning,^g

and my pipe^h to the sound of wailing.