JOB 30 [†] “But now they i laugh at me,
men who are j younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
to set with the dogs of my flock.
2 What could I gain from the strength of their hands,
3 Through want and hard hunger
they m gnaw n the dry ground by night in o waste and desolation;
4[†] they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes,
and the roots of the broom tree for their food. [1]
5 p They are driven out from human company;
they shout after them as after a thief.
6 In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell,
in holes of the earth and of q the rocks.
7 Among the bushes they r bray;
under s the nettles they huddle together.
8[†] A senseless, a nameless brood,
they have been whipped out of the land.
9[†] “And now I have become their t song;
I am u a byword to them.
10[^] They v abhor me; they keep aloof from me;
they do not hesitate to w spit at the sight of me.
11[†] Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me,
they have cast off restraint [2] in my presence.
12 On my x right hand the rabble rise;
they push away my feet;
they y cast up against me their ways of destruction.
13 They break up my path;
they promote my z calamity;
they need no one to help them.
14[†] As through a wide a breach they come;
amid the crash they roll on.
15 b Terrors are turned upon me;
my honor is pursued as by the wind,
and my prosperity has passed away like c a cloud.
16[†] “And now my soul is d poured out within me;
days of affliction have taken hold of me.
17 e The night f racks my bones,
and the pain that g gnaws me takes no rest.
18[†] With great force my garment is h disfigured;
it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
19 God [3] has cast me into the mire,
and I have become like i dust and ashes.
20[^][†] I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;
I stand, and you only look at me.
21 You have j turned cruel to me;
with the might of your hand you k persecute me.
22 l 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 m For I know that you will bring me to death
and to the house appointed for n all living.
24[†] “Yet does not one in a o heap of ruins stretch out his hand,
and in his disaster cry for help? [4]
25 Did not I p weep for him whose day was hard?
Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
26 But q when I hoped for good, evil came,
and when I waited for light, r darkness came.
27 My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;
days of affliction s come to meet me.
28 I t go about darkened, but not by the sun;
I stand up in u the assembly and cry for help.
29 I am a brother of v jackals
and a companion of w ostriches.
30 My x skin turns black and falls from me,
and my y bones burn with heat.
31 My z lyre is a turned to mourning,
and my z pipe to the voice of those who weep.