1‘But now those who are younger than I am make fun of me. I wouldn’t even put their parents with my sheep dogs!2Their strong hands couldn’t give me any help. That’s because their strength was gone.3They were weak because they were needy and hungry. They wandered through dry and empty deserts at night.4Among the bushes they gathered salty plants. They ate the roots of desert bushes.5They were driven away from human society. They were shouted at as if they were robbers.6They were forced to live in dry stream beds. They had to stay among rocks and in holes in the ground.7Like donkeys they cried out among the bushes. There they crowded together and hid.8They were so foolish that no one respected them. They were driven out of the land.9‘Now their children laugh at me. They make fun of me with their songs.10They hate me. They stay away from me. They even dare to spit in my face.11God has made my body weak. It’s like a tent that has fallen down. So those children do what they want to in front of me.12Many people attack me on my right side. They lay traps for my feet. They come at me from every direction.13They tear up the road I walk on. They succeed in destroying me. They say, “No one can help him.”14They attack me like troops smashing through a wall. Among the destroyed buildings they come rolling in.15Terrors sweep over me. My honour is driven away as if by the wind. My safety vanishes like a cloud.16‘Now my life is slipping away. Days of suffering grab hold of me.17At night my bones hurt. My aches and pains never stop.18God’s great power becomes like clothes to me. He chokes me like the neck of my shirt.19He throws me down into the mud. I’m nothing but dust and ashes.20‘God, I cry out to you. But you don’t answer me. I stand up. But all you do is look at me.21You do mean things to me. You attack me with your mighty power.22You pick me up and blow me away with the wind. You toss me around in the storm.23I know that you will bring me down to death. That’s what you have appointed for everyone.24‘No one would crush people when they cry out for help in their trouble.25Haven’t I wept for those who are in trouble? Haven’t I felt sorry for poor people?26I hoped good things would happen, but something evil came. I looked for light, but all I saw was darkness.27My insides are always churning. Nothing but days of suffering are ahead of me.28My skin has become dark, but the sun didn’t do it. I stand up in the community and cry out for help.29I’ve become a brother to wild dogs. Owls are my companions.30My skin grows black and peels. My body burns with fever.31My lyre is tuned to sadness. My flute makes a sound like weeping.
Job 30
English Standard Version
1“But now they laugh at me, men who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. (Job 12:4; Job 32:4; Job 32:6)2What could I gain from the strength of their hands, men whose vigor is gone? (Job 5:26; Job 24:4)3Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation; (Job 30:17; Job 38:27; Jer 2:6; Zep 1:15)4they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes, and the roots of the broom tree for their food.[1]5They are driven out from human company; they shout after them as after a thief. (1Sa 26:19)6In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell, in holes of the earth and of the rocks. (1Sa 13:6; Jer 4:29)7Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they huddle together. (Job 6:5; Pr 24:31; Zep 2:9)8A senseless, a nameless brood, they have been whipped out of the land.9“And now I have become their song; I am a byword to them. (Job 17:6; Ps 69:12; La 3:14; La 3:63)10They abhor me; they keep aloof from me; they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me. (Nu 12:14; Job 17:6; Ps 88:8; Isa 50:6; Mt 26:67; Mt 27:30)11Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me, they have cast off restraint[2] in my presence.12On my right hand the rabble rise; they push away my feet; they cast up against me their ways of destruction. (Job 19:12; Ps 109:6)13They break up my path; they promote my calamity; they need no one to help them. (Job 6:2)14As through a wide breach they come; amid the crash they roll on. (Job 16:14)15Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud. (Job 7:9; Job 18:11; Isa 44:22)16“And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me. (1Sa 1:15; Job 10:1)17The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest. (Job 7:3; Job 30:3; Job 33:19)18With great force my garment is disfigured; it binds me about like the collar of my tunic. (1Sa 28:8; 1Ki 20:38)19God[3] has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. (Ge 18:27; Job 42:6)20I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me.21You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me. (Job 16:9; Isa 63:10; La 4:3)22You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm. (Job 27:21)23For I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living. (Job 19:25; Job 28:21)24“Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster cry for help?[4] (Ps 79:1; Jer 26:18; Mic 1:6; Mic 3:12)25Did not I weep for him whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy? (Ps 35:13; Ro 12:15)26But when I hoped for good, evil came, and when I waited for light, darkness came. (Job 10:21; Jer 8:15; Jer 14:19)27My inward parts are in turmoil and never still; days of affliction come to meet me. (2Sa 22:6; Ps 18:5)28I go about darkened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. (Ps 38:6; Ps 42:9; Ps 43:2; Pr 26:26)29I am a brother of jackals and a companion of ostriches. (Isa 13:21; Isa 34:13; Jer 50:39; Mic 1:8)30My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat. (Ps 102:3; Ps 119:83; La 4:8; La 5:10)31My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep. (Job 21:12; La 5:15)