Job 30

30“But now they mock at me, men ¹younger than I,

Whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock.

²Indeed, what profit is the strength of their hands to me?

Their vigor has perished.

³They are gaunt from want and famine,

Fleeing late to the wilderness, desolate and waste,

⁴Who pluck ²mallow by the bushes,

And broom tree roots for their food.

⁵They were driven out from among men,

They shouted at them as at a thief.

⁶They had to live in the clefts of the ³valleys,

In ⁴caves of the earth and the rocks.

⁷Among the bushes they brayed,

Under the nettles they nestled.

⁸They were sons of fools,

Yes, sons of vile men;

They were scourged from the land.

⁹“And ^anow I am their taunting song;

Yes, I am their byword.

¹⁰They abhor me, they keep far from me;

They do not hesitate ^bto spit in my face.

¹¹Because ^cHe has loosed ⁵my bowstring and afflicted me,

They have cast off restraint before me.

¹²At my right hand the rabble arises;

They push away my feet,

And ^dthey raise against me their ways of destruction.

¹³They break up my path,

They promote my calamity;

They have no helper.

¹⁴They come as broad breakers;

Under the ruinous storm they roll along.

¹⁵Terrors are turned upon me;

They pursue my honor as the wind,

And my prosperity has passed like a cloud.

¹⁶“And ^enow my soul is ^fpoured out because of my plight;

The days of affliction take hold of me.

¹⁷My bones are pierced in me at night,

And my gnawing pains take no rest.

¹⁸By great force my garment is disfigured;

It binds me about as the collar of my coat.

¹⁹He has cast me into the mire,

And I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰“I ^gcry out to You, but You do not answer me;

I stand up, and You regard me.

²¹But You have become cruel to me;

With the strength of Your hand You ^hoppose me.

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

You spoil my success.

²³For I know that You will bring me to death,

And to the house ⁱappointed for all living.

²⁴“Surely He would not stretch out His hand against a heap of ruins,

If they cry out when He destroys it.

^25jHave I not wept for him who was in trouble?

Has not my soul grieved for the poor?

^26kBut when I looked for good, evil came to me;

And when I waited for light, then came darkness.

²⁷⁶My heart is in turmoil and cannot rest;

Days of affliction confront me.

^28lI go about mourning, but not in the sun;

I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help.

^29mI am a brother of jackals,

And a companion of ostriches.

³⁰ⁿMy skin grows black and falls from me;

^oMy bones burn with fever.

³¹My harp is turned to mourning,

And my flute to the voice of those who weep.