Job 30

Job’s Present State Is Humiliating

30 “But now those who are younger than I mock me,
Whose fathers I refused to put with the dogs of my flock.
2 Indeed, what good was the strength of their hands to me?
Vigor had perished from them.
3 From poverty and famine they are gaunt,
They who gnaw at the dry ground by night in waste and desolation,
4 Who pluck saltweed by the bushes,
And whose food is the root of the broom shrub.
5 They are driven from the community;
They shout against them as against a thief,
6 So that they live on the slopes of ravines,
In holes in the ground and among the rocks.
7 Among the bushes they [a]cry out;
Under the weeds they are gathered together.
8 Worthless [b]fellows, even [c]those without a name,
They were cast out from the land.

9 “And now I have become their [d]taunt,
And I have become a [e]byword to them.
10 They loathe me and stand aloof from me,
And they do not [f]refrain from spitting in my face.
11 Because He has undone [g]my [h]bowstring and afflicted me,
They have cast off the bridle before me.
12 On the right hand their [i]mob arises;
They push aside my feet and pile up their ways of destruction against me.
13 They break up my path,
They promote my destruction;
No one restrains them.
14 As through a wide gap they come,
[j]Amid the storm they roll on.
15 Sudden terrors are turned upon me;
They chase away my dignity like the wind,
And my [k]prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

16 “And now my soul is poured out [l]within me;
Days of misery have seized me.
17 At night it pierces my bones [m]within me,
And my gnawing pains do not rest.
18 By a great force my garment is distorted;
It ties me up like the collar of my coat.
19 He has thrown me into the mire,
And I have become like dust and ashes.
20 I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer me;
I stand up, and You turn Your attention against me.
21 You have [n]become cruel to me;
With the strength of Your hand You persecute me.
22 You lift me up to the wind and make me ride it;
And You dissolve me in a storm.
23 For I know that You will bring me to death,
And to the house of meeting for all living.

24 “Yet does one in a heap of ruins not reach out with his hand,
Or in his disaster does he not cry out for help?
25 Have I not wept for the [o]one whose life is hard?
Was my soul not grieved for the needy?
26 When I expected good, evil came;
When I waited for light, darkness came.
27 [p]I am seething within and cannot rest;
Days of misery confront me.
28 I go about [q]mourning without comfort;
I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help.
29 I have become a brother to jackals,
And a companion of ostriches.
30 My skin turns black [r]on me,
And my bones burn with [s]fever.
31 Therefore my harp [t]is turned to mourning,
And my flute to the sound of those who weep.

Footnotes

  1. Job 30:7 Or bray
  2. Job 30:8 Lit sons
  3. Job 30:8 Lit sons
  4. Job 30:9 Lit song
  5. Job 30:9 I.e., prob. a word of insult
  6. Job 30:10 Lit withhold spit from my face
  7. Job 30:11 Some mss His
  8. Job 30:11 Or cord
  9. Job 30:12 Or youth arise
  10. Job 30:14 Lit Under
  11. Job 30:15 Or welfare
  12. Job 30:16 Lit upon
  13. Job 30:17 Lit from upon
  14. Job 30:21 Lit turned to be
  15. Job 30:25 Lit hard of day
  16. Job 30:27 Lit My inward parts are boiling
  17. Job 30:28 Or blackened, but not by the heat of the sun
  18. Job 30:30 Lit from upon
  19. Job 30:30 Lit heat
  20. Job 30:31 Lit becomes