Job 30

English Standard Version

30 “But now they ^(A)laugh at me,
    men who are ^(B)younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
    to set with the dogs of my flock.
²What could I gain from the strength of their hands,
    ^(C)men whose ^(D)vigor is gone?
³Through want and hard hunger
    they ^(E)gnaw ^(F)the dry ground by night in ^(G)waste and desolation;
⁴they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes,
    and the roots of the broom tree for their food.^[a]
⁵^(H)They are driven out from human company;
    they shout after them as after a thief.
⁶In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell,
    in holes of the earth and of ^(I)the rocks.
⁷Among the bushes they ^(J)bray;
    under ^(K)the nettles they huddle together.
⁸A senseless, a nameless brood,
    they have been whipped out of the land.

⁹“And now I have become their ^(L)song;
    I am ^(M)a byword to them.
¹⁰They ^(N)abhor me; they keep aloof from me;
    they do not hesitate to ^(O)spit at the sight of me.
¹¹Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me,
    they have cast off restraint^[b] in my presence.
¹²On my ^(P)right hand the rabble rise;
    they push away my feet;
    they ^(Q)cast up against me their ways of destruction.
¹³They break up my path;
    they promote my ^(R)calamity;
    they need no one to help them.
¹⁴As through a wide ^(S)breach they come;
    amid the crash they roll on.
¹⁵^(T)Terrors are turned upon me;
    my honor is pursued as by the wind,
    and my prosperity has passed away like ^(U)a cloud.

¹⁶“And now my soul is ^(V)poured out within me;
    days of affliction have taken hold of me.
¹⁷^(W)The night ^(X)racks my bones,
    and the pain that ^(Y)gnaws me takes no rest.
¹⁸With great force my garment is ^(Z)disfigured;
    it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
¹⁹God^[c] has cast me into the mire,
    and I have become like ^(AA)dust and ashes.
²⁰I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;
    I stand, and you only look at me.
²¹You have ^(AB)turned cruel to me;
    with the might of your hand you ^(AC)persecute me.
²²^(AD)You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it,
    and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.
²³^(AE)For I know that you will bring me to death
    and to the house appointed for ^(AF)all living.

²⁴“Yet does not one in a ^(AG)heap of ruins stretch out his hand,
    and in his disaster cry for help?^[d]
²⁵Did not I ^(AH)weep for him whose day was hard?
    Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
²⁶But ^(AI)when I hoped for good, evil came,
    and when I waited for light, ^(AJ)darkness came.
²⁷My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;
    days of affliction ^(AK)come to meet me.
²⁸I ^(AL)go about darkened, but not by the sun;
    I stand up in ^(AM)the assembly and cry for help.
²⁹I am a brother of ^(AN)jackals
    and a companion of ^(AO)ostriches.
³⁰My ^(AP)skin turns black and falls from me,
    and my ^(AQ)bones burn with heat.
³¹My ^(AR)lyre is ^(AS)turned to mourning,
    and my ^(AT)pipe to the voice of those who weep.