Job 30

1But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.

1But now those who are younger than I make sport of me; those whose fathers I would not have put with the dogs of my flocks.

2Yea, whereto [should] the strength of their hands [profit] me, [men] in whom vigour hath perished?

2Of what use is the strength of their hands to me? all force is gone from them.

3Withered up through want and hunger, they flee into waste places long since desolate and desert:

3They are wasted for need of food, biting the dry earth; their only hope of life is in the waste land.

4They gather the salt-wort among the bushes, and the roots of the broom for their food.

4They are pulling off the salt leaves from the brushwood, and making a meal of roots.

5They are driven forth from among [men] — they cry after them as after a thief —

5They are sent out from among their townsmen, men are crying after them as thieves

6To dwell in gloomy gorges, in caves of the earth and the rocks:

6They have to get a resting-place in the hollows of the valleys, in holes of the earth and rocks.

7They bray among the bushes; under the brambles they are gathered together:

7They make noises like asses among the brushwood; they get together under the thorns.

8Sons of fools, and sons of nameless sires, they are driven out of the land.

8They are sons of shame, and of men without a name, who have been forced out of the land.

9And now I am their song, yea, I am their byword.

9And now I have become their song, and I am a word of shame to them.

10They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, yea, they spare not to spit in my face.

10I am disgusting to them; they keep away from me, and put marks of shame on me.

11For he hath loosed my cord and afflicted me; so they cast off the bridle before me.

11For he has made loose the cord of my bow, and put me to shame; he has sent down my flag to the earth before me.

12At [my] right hand rise the young brood; they push away my feet, and raise up against me their pernicious ways;

12The lines of his men of war put themselves in order, and make high their ways of destruction against me:

13They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, without any to help them;

13They have made waste my roads, with a view to my destruction; his bowmen come round about me;

14They come in as through a wide breach: amid the confusion they roll themselves onward.

14As through a wide broken place in the wall they come on, I am overturned by the shock of their attack.

15Terrors are turned against me; they pursue mine honour as the wind; and my welfare is passed away like a cloud.

15Fears have come on me; my hope is gone like the wind, and my well-being like a cloud.

16And now my soul is poured out in me; days of affliction have taken hold upon me.

16But now my soul is turned to water in me, days of trouble overtake me:

17The night pierceth through my bones [and detacheth them] from me, and my gnawing pains take no rest:

17The flesh is gone from my bones, and they give me no rest; there is no end to my pains.

18By their great force they have become my raiment; they bind me about as the collar of my coat.

18With great force he takes a grip of my clothing, pulling me by the neck of my coat.

19He hath cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.

19Truly God has made me low, even to the earth, and I have become like dust.

20I cry unto thee, and thou answerest me not; I stand up, and thou lookest at me.

20You give no answer to my cry, and take no note of my prayer.

21Thou art changed to a cruel one to me; with the strength of thy hand thou pursuest me.

21You have become cruel to me; the strength of your hand is hard on me.

22Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to be borne away, and dissolvest my substance.

22Lifting me up, you make me go on the wings of the wind; I am broken up by the storm.

23For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and into the house of assemblage for all living.

23For I am certain that you will send me back to death, and to the meeting-place ordered for all living.

24Indeed, no prayer [availeth] when he stretcheth out [his] hand: though they cry when he destroyeth.

24Has not my hand been stretched out in help to the poor? have I not been a saviour to him in his trouble?

25Did not I weep for him whose days were hard? was not my soul grieved for the needy?

25Have I not been weeping for the crushed? and was not my soul sad for him who was in need?

26For I expected good, and there came evil; and I waited for light, but there came darkness.

26For I was looking for good, and evil came; I was waiting for light, and it became dark.

27My bowels well up, and rest not; days of affliction have confronted me.

27My feelings are strongly moved, and give me no rest; days of trouble have overtaken me.

28I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up, I cry in the congregation.

28I go about in dark clothing, uncomforted; I get up in the public place, crying out for help.

29I am become a brother to jackals, and a companion of ostriches.

29I have become a brother to the jackals, and go about in the company of ostriches.

30My skin is become black [and falleth] off me, and my bones are parched with heat.

30My skin is black and dropping off me; and my bones are burning with the heat of my disease.

31My harp also is [turned] to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of weepers.

31And my music has been turned to sorrow, and the sound of my pipe into the noise of weeping.