Job 30 / 42
- 1"But now they mock me, men younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
- 2Of what use was the strength of their hands to me, since their vigor had gone from them?
- 3Haggard from want and hunger, they roamed the parched land in desolate wastelands at night.
- 4In the brush they gathered salt herbs, and their food was the root of the broom tree.
- 5They were banished from their fellow men, shouted at as if they were thieves.
- 6They were forced to live in the dry stream beds, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
- 7They brayed among the bushes and huddled in the undergrowth.
- 8A base and nameless brood, they were driven out of the land.
- 9"And now their sons mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.
- 10They detest me and keep their distance; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
- 11Now that God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they throw off restraint in my presence.
- 12On my right the tribe attacks; they lay snares for my feet, they build their siege ramps against me.
- 13They break up my road; they succeed in destroying me- without anyone's helping them.
- 14They advance as through a gaping breach; amid the ruins they come rolling in.
- 15Terrors overwhelm me; my dignity is driven away as by the wind, my safety vanishes like a cloud.
- 16"And now my life ebbs away; days of suffering grip me.
- 17Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never rest.
- 18In his great power God becomes like clothing to me ; he binds me like the neck of my garment.
- 19He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes.
- 20"I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me.
- 21You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me.
- 22You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm.
- 23I know you will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
- 24"Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man when he cries for help in his distress.
- 25Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor?
- 26Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness.
- 27The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me.
- 28I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
- 29I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of owls.
- 30My skin grows black and peels; my body burns with fever.
- 31My harp is tuned to mourning, and my flute to the sound of wailing.