Job 30

Revised Geneva Translation

30 “But now, those who are younger than me, mock me, those whose fathers I have refused to set with the dogs of my flocks.

² “For how should the strength of their hands have served me? Vigor perished in them.

³ “They were hard from poverty and famine, fleeing into the wilderness, dark, desolate and waste.

⁴ “They cut up nettles by the bushes, and the juniper root was their food.

⁵ “They were chased forth from among men. They shouted at them, as at a thief.

⁶ “Therefore they dwelt in the clefts of rivers, in the holes of the earth and rocks.

⁷ “They roared among the bushes, and under the thistles they gathered themselves.

⁸ “They were the children of fools, and the children of villains, who were scourged from the Earth.

⁹ “And now am I their song, and I am their talk.

¹⁰ “They abhor me, flee far from me, and do not hesitate to spit in my face.

¹¹ “Because He has loosed His cord and humbled me. They have loosed the bridle before me.

¹² “The youth rise up at my right hand. They have pushed away my feet and have built upon me the paths of their destruction.

¹³ “They have destroyed my paths. They took pleasure in my calamity. They had no help.

¹⁴ “They came as a great breach. Under this calamity they come in waves.

¹⁵ “Fear is turned upon me. They pursue my soul as the wind, and my health passes away as a cloud.

¹⁶ “Therefore my soul is now poured out upon me. And the days of affliction have taken hold on me.

¹⁷ “It pierces my bones in the night, and my sinews take no rest.

¹⁸ “Through great force is my garment changed, surrounding me as the collar of my coat.

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

²⁰ “When I cry to You, You do not hear me. Nor do You regard me when I stand up.

²¹ “You turn Yourself cruelly against me and oppose me with the strength of Your Hand.

²² “You take me up, cause me to ride upon the wind, and make my strength fail.

²³ “Surely I know that You will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all the living.

²⁴ “Yet does not one still stretch his hand from the grave, though he cries in His destruction?

²⁵ “Did not I weep with him who was in trouble? Was not my soul in heaviness for the poor?

²⁶ “Yet when I looked for good, evil came to me. And when I waited for light, there came darkness.

²⁷ “My bowels boiled without rest. The days of affliction have come upon me.

²⁸ “I went mourning, without Sun. I stood up in the Congregation and cried.

²⁹ “I am a brother to the jackals, and a companion to the ostriches.

³⁰ “My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burnt with heat.

³¹ “Therefore, my harp becomes mourning, and my organs the voice of those who weep.”