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30 “But now those who are younger than I mock me,
    whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock.
Yes, how does the strength of their hands profit me?
    Their vigor has perished.
For want and famine
    they gnawed the parched land;
    fleeing into the wilderness in former time, desolate and waste.
Who pluck mallow by the bushes,
    and juniper roots for their food.
They were driven out from among men;
    they shout after them as after a thief.
They had to dwell in the rocky riverbeds,
    in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.
Among the bushes they brayed;
    under the nettles they were gathered together.
They were children of fools, yes, children of vile men;
    they were scourged from the earth.

“Now I am their taunting song;
    yes, I am their byword.
10 They abhor me, they flee far from me;
    they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
11 Because He has loosed my bowstring and afflicted me,
    they have cast off the bridle before me.
12 At my right hand their brood arises;
    they push away my feet,
    and they raise against me their ways of destruction.
13 They tear apart my path,
    they promote my calamity;
    they have no helper.
14 They came upon me as a wide breach, with a crash they came;
    in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.
15 Terrors are turned on me;
    they pursue my dignity like the wind,
    and my help passes away as a cloud.

16 “Now my soul is poured out within me;
    the days of affliction have taken hold of me.
17 My bones are pierced in me at night,
    and my sinews have no rest.
18 By the great force of my disease my garment is changed;
    it binds me about as the collar of my coat.
19 He has cast me into the mire,
    and I have become like dust and ashes.

20 “I cry unto You, but You do not hear me;
    I stand up, and You do not regard me.
21 You have become cruel to me;
    with Your strong hand You oppose me.
22 You lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride on it;
    You dissolve my success.
23 For I know that You will bring me to death,
    and to the house appointed for all living.

24 “Surely He will not stretch out His hand to the grave,
    though they cry when He destroys it.
25 Did I not weep for him who was in trouble?
    Was not my soul grieved for the poor?
26 When I looked for good, then evil disaster came upon me;
    and when I waited for light, darkness came.
27 My insides boiled and did not rest;
    the days of affliction have met me.
28 I went mourning without the sun;
    I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.
29 I am a brother of jackals
    and a companion of owls.
30 My skin is black upon me,
    and my bones are burned with fever.
31 My harp is turned to mourning,
    and my flute to the voice of those who weep.

30 “But now they mock me,(A)
    men younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
    to put with my sheep dogs.(B)
Of what use was the strength of their hands to me,
    since their vigor had gone from them?
Haggard from want and hunger,
    they roamed[a] the parched land(C)
    in desolate wastelands(D) at night.(E)
In the brush they gathered salt herbs,(F)
    and their food[b] was the root of the broom bush.(G)
They were banished from human society,
    shouted at as if they were thieves.
They were forced to live in the dry stream beds,
    among the rocks and in holes in the ground.(H)
They brayed(I) among the bushes(J)
    and huddled in the undergrowth.
A base and nameless brood,(K)
    they were driven out of the land.(L)

“And now those young men mock me(M) in song;(N)
    I have become a byword(O) among them.
10 They detest me(P) and keep their distance;
    they do not hesitate to spit in my face.(Q)
11 Now that God has unstrung my bow(R) and afflicted me,(S)
    they throw off restraint(T) in my presence.
12 On my right(U) the tribe[c] attacks;
    they lay snares(V) for my feet,(W)
    they build their siege ramps against me.(X)
13 They break up my road;(Y)
    they succeed in destroying me.(Z)
    ‘No one can help him,’ they say.
14 They advance as through a gaping breach;(AA)
    amid the ruins they come rolling in.
15 Terrors(AB) overwhelm me;(AC)
    my dignity is driven away as by the wind,
    my safety vanishes like a cloud.(AD)

16 “And now my life ebbs away;(AE)
    days of suffering grip me.(AF)
17 Night pierces my bones;
    my gnawing pains never rest.(AG)
18 In his great power(AH) God becomes like clothing to me[d];
    he binds me like the neck of my garment.
19 He throws me into the mud,(AI)
    and I am reduced to dust and ashes.(AJ)

20 “I cry out to you,(AK) God, but you do not answer;(AL)
    I stand up, but you merely look at me.
21 You turn on me ruthlessly;(AM)
    with the might of your hand(AN) you attack me.(AO)
22 You snatch me up and drive me before the wind;(AP)
    you toss me about in the storm.(AQ)
23 I know you will bring me down to death,(AR)
    to the place appointed for all the living.(AS)

24 “Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man(AT)
    when he cries for help in his distress.(AU)
25 Have I not wept for those in trouble?(AV)
    Has not my soul grieved for the poor?(AW)
26 Yet when I hoped for good, evil came;
    when I looked for light, then came darkness.(AX)
27 The churning inside me never stops;(AY)
    days of suffering confront me.(AZ)
28 I go about blackened,(BA) but not by the sun;
    I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.(BB)
29 I have become a brother of jackals,(BC)
    a companion of owls.(BD)
30 My skin grows black(BE) and peels;(BF)
    my body burns with fever.(BG)
31 My lyre is tuned to mourning,(BH)
    and my pipe(BI) to the sound of wailing.

Footnotes

  1. Job 30:3 Or gnawed
  2. Job 30:4 Or fuel
  3. Job 30:12 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
  4. Job 30:18 Hebrew; Septuagint power he grasps my clothing