Job 30:1-31
30 “Now they laugh at me+—Men younger than I am,Whose fathers I would have refusedTo put with the dogs that guarded my flock.
2 Of what use was the power of their hands to me?
Their vigor has perished.
3 They are worn out from want and hunger;They gnaw at the parched groundThat was already ruined and desolated.
4 They gather the salt herb from the bushes;Their food is the root of broom trees.
5 They are driven out of the community;+People shout at them as they would at a thief.
6 They live on the slopes of ravines,*In holes in the ground and in the rocks.
7 From the bushes they cry outAnd huddle together among the nettles.
8 As sons of the senseless and the nameless ones,They have been driven* out of the land.
9 But now they mock me even in their songs;+I have become an object of scorn* to them.+
10 They detest me and keep their distance from me;+They do not hesitate to spit in my face.+
11 Because God has disarmed me* and humbled me,They throw off all restraint* in my presence.
12 On my right they rise up like a mob;They put me to flightAnd put up barriers of destruction in my path.
13 They tear up my roadwaysAnd make my calamity worse,+Without anyone to stop them.*
14 They come as if through a wide breach in the wall;They roll in amid the devastation.
15 Terror overwhelms me;My dignity is driven away like the wind,And my salvation vanishes like a cloud.
16 Now my life* ebbs from me;+Days of affliction+ take hold of me.
17 Aching pierces my bones* at night;+The gnawing pain never stops.+
18 With great force my garment is disfigured;*Like the collar of my garment, it chokes me.
19 God has thrown me down into the mud;I am reduced to dust and ashes.
20 I cry to you for help, but you do not answer me;+I stand up, but you just look at me.
21 You have cruelly turned against me;+With the full might of your hand, you assault me.
22 You pick me up and carry me off with the wind;Then you toss me about in the storm.*
23 For I know that you will bring me down to death,To the house where everyone living will meet.
24 But no one would strike at a broken man*+As he cries for help during his time of disaster.
25 Have I not wept for those who have fallen on hard times?*
Have I* not grieved for the poor?+
26 Although I hoped for good, bad came;I expected the light, but darkness came.
27 The churning inside me did not stop;Days of affliction confronted me.
28 I walk about gloomy;+ there is no sunlight.
In the assembly, I rise and cry for help.
29 I have become a brother to jackalsAnd a companion to the daughters of the ostrich.+
30 My skin has blackened and fallen off;+My bones burn from the heat.*
31 My harp is used only for mourning,And my flute* for the sound of weeping.
Footnotes
^ Or “wadis.”
^ Lit., “scourged.”
^ Lit., “a proverb; a byword.”
^ Lit., “loosened my bowstring.”
^ Or “They cast off the bridle.”
^ Or possibly, “Without anyone helping them.”
^ Or “soul.”
^ Lit., “My bones are bored through.”
^ Or possibly, “The severity of my affliction disfigures me.”
^ Or possibly, “dissolve me with a crash.”
^ Lit., “a heap of ruins.”
^ Or “who are having a hard day?”
^ Or “Has my soul.”
^ Or possibly, “fever.”
^ Or “pipe.”
