men younger than I am,
whose fathers I would have refused to put
with my sheep dogs.
2 What use to me was the strength of their hands?
Their vigor had left them.
3 Emaciated from poverty and hunger,
they gnawed the dry land,
the desolate wasteland by night.
4 They plucked mallow[a] among the shrubs,
and the roots of the broom tree were their food.
5 They were expelled from human society;
people shouted at them as if they were thieves.
6 They are living on the slopes of the wadis,
among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
7 They bray among the shrubs;
they huddle beneath the thistles.
8 Foolish men, without even a name.
They were forced to leave the land.
I have become an object of scorn to them.
10 They despise me and keep their distance from me;
they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
11 Because God has loosened my[b] bowstring and oppressed me,
they have cast off restraint in my presence.
12 The rabble[c] rise up at my right;
they trap[d] my feet
and construct their siege ramp[e] against me.
13 They tear up my path;
they contribute to my destruction,
without anyone to help them.
14 They advance as through a gaping breach;
they keep rolling in through the ruins.
15 Terrors are turned loose against me;
they chase my dignity away like the wind,
and my prosperity has passed by like a cloud.
and days of suffering have seized me.
17 Night pierces my bones,
but my gnawing pains never rest.
18 My clothing is distorted with great force;
He chokes me by the neck of my garment.[f]
19 He throws me into the mud,
and I have become like dust and ashes.
when I stand up, You merely look at me.
21 You have turned against me with cruelty;
You harass me with Your strong hand.
22 You lift me up on the wind and make me ride it;
You scatter me in the storm.
23 Yes, I know that You will lead me to death—
the place appointed for all who live.
against a ruined man[g]
when he cries out to him for help
because of his distress.
25 Have I not wept for those who have fallen on hard times?
Has my soul not grieved for the needy?
26 But when I hoped for good, evil came;
when I looked for light, darkness came.
27 I am churning within[h] and cannot rest;
days of suffering confront me.
28 I walk about blackened, but not by the sun.[i]
I stood in the assembly and cried out for help.
29 I have become a brother to jackals
and a companion of ostriches.
30 My skin blackens and flakes off,[j]
and my bones burn with fever.
31 My lyre is used for mourning
and my flute for the sound of weeping.
Footnotes
- Job 30:4 Or saltwort
- Job 30:11 Alt Hb tradition, LXX, Vg read His
- Job 30:12 Hb obscure
- Job 30:12 Lit stretch out
- Job 30:12 Lit and raise up their destructive paths
- Job 30:18 Hb obscure
- Job 30:24 Lit a heap of ruins
- Job 30:27 Lit My bowels boil
- Job 30:28 Or walk in sunless gloom
- Job 30:30 Lit blackens away from me