Hiob 30 | New International Reader’s Version

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! 2 Their strong hands couldn’t give me any help. That’s because their strength was gone. 3 They were weak because they were needy and hungry. They wandered through dry and empty deserts at night. 4 Among the bushes they gathered salty plants. They ate the roots of desert bushes. 5 They were driven away from human society. They were shouted at as if they were robbers. 6 They were forced to live in dry stream beds. They had to stay among rocks and in holes in the ground. 7 Like donkeys they cried out among the bushes. There they crowded together and hid. 8 They 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. 10 They hate me. They stay away from me. They even dare to spit in my face. 11 God 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. 12 Many people attack me on my right side. They lay traps for my feet. They come at me from every direction. 13 They tear up the road I walk on. They succeed in destroying me. They say, “No one can help him.” 14 They attack me like troops smashing through a wall. Among the destroyed buildings they come rolling in. 15 Terrors 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. 17 At night my bones hurt. My aches and pains never stop. 18 God’s great power becomes like clothes to me. He chokes me like the neck of my shirt. 19 He 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. 21 You do mean things to me. You attack me with your mighty power. 22 You pick me up and blow me away with the wind. You toss me around in the storm. 23 I 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. 25 Haven’t I wept for those who are in trouble? Haven’t I felt sorry for poor people? 26 I hoped good things would happen, but something evil came. I looked for light, but all I saw was darkness. 27 My insides are always churning. Nothing but days of suffering are ahead of me. 28 My skin has become dark, but the sun didn’t do it. I stand up in the community and cry out for help. 29 I’ve become a brother to wild dogs. Owls are my companions. 30 My skin grows black and peels. My body burns with fever. 31 My lyre is tuned to sadness. My flute makes a sound like weeping.

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. 2 What could I gain from the strength of their hands, men whose vigor is gone? 3 Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation; 4 they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes, and the roots of the broom tree for their food.* 5 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 the rocks. 7 Among the bushes they bray; under 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 song; I am a byword to them. 10 They abhor me; they keep aloof from me; they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me. 11 Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me, they have cast off restraint* in my presence. 12 On my right hand the rabble rise; they push away my feet; they cast up against me their ways of destruction. 13 They break up my path; they promote my calamity; they need no one to help them. 14 As through a wide breach they come; amid the crash they roll on. 15 Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud. 16 “And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me. 17 The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest. 18 With great force my garment is disfigured; it binds me about like the collar of my tunic. 19 God* has cast me into the mire, and I have become like 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 turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me. 22 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 For I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living. 24 “Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster cry for help?* 25 Did not I weep for him whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy? 26 But when I hoped for good, evil came, and when I waited for light, darkness came. 27 My inward parts are in turmoil and never still; days of affliction come to meet me. 28 I go about darkened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. 29 I am a brother of jackals and a companion of ostriches. 30 My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat. 31 My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.

Hiob 30 | New International Reader’s Version English Standard Version