Job 30

1But now the younger in time scorn me, whose fathers I would not have 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.

2The strength of whose hands was to me as nothing, and they were thought unworthy of life itself.

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

3Barren with want and hunger, who gnawed in the wilderness, disfigured with calamity and misery.

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

4And they ate grass, and barks of trees, and the root of junipers was their food.

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

5Who snatched up these things out of the valleys, and when they had found any of them, they ran to them with a cry.

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

6They dwelt in the desert places of torrents, and in caves of earth, or upon the gravel.

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

7They pleased themselves among these kind of things, and counted it delightful to be under the briers.

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

8The children of foolish and base men, and not appearing at all upon the earth.

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

9Now I am turned into their song, and am become their byword.

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

10They abhor me, and flee far from me, and are not afraid 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 opened his quiver, and hath afflicted me, and hath put a bridle into my mouth.

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 the right hand of my rising, my calamities forthwith arose: they have overthrown my feet, and have overwhelmed me with their paths as with waves.

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

13They have destroyed my ways, they have lain in wait against me, and they have prevailed, and there was none to help.

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

14They have rushed in upon me, as when a wall is broken, and a gate opened, and have rolled themselves down to my miseries.

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

15I am brought to nothing: as a wind thou hast taken away my desire: and my prosperity hath 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 fadeth within myself, and the days of affliction possess me.

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

17In the night my bone is pierced with sorrows: and they that feed upon me, do not sleep.

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

18With the multitude of them my garment is consumed, and they have girded me about, as with the collar of my coat.

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

19I am compared to dirt, and am likened to embers and ashes.

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

20I cry to thee, and thou hearest me not: I stand up, and thou dost not regard me.

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

21Thou art changed to be cruel toward me, and in the hardness of thy hand thou art against me.

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

22Thou hast lifted me up, and set me as it were upon the wind, and thou hast mightily dashed me.

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

23I know that thou wilt deliver me to death, where a house is appointed for every one that liveth.

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

24But yet thou stretchest not forth thy hand to their consumption: and if they shall fall down thou wilt save.

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

25I wept heretofore for him that was afflicted, and my soul had compassion on the poor.

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

26I expected good things, and evils are come upon me: I waited for light, and darkness broke out.

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

27My inner parts have boiled without any rest, the days of affliction have prevented me.

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

28I went mourning without indignation; I rose up, and cried in the crowd.

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

29I was the brother of dragons, and companion of ostriches.

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

30My skin is become black upon me, and my bones are dried up with heat.

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

31My harp is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of those that weep.

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