Job’s Present Misery
30:1 But now they mock me, those
who are younger1
than I,
whose fathers I disdained too much2
to put with my sheep dogs.3
30:2 Moreover, the strength of their4
hands,
what use was it to me to me?
Men whose strength5
had perished;
30:3 gaunt6
with want and hunger,
they would gnaw7
the parched land,
in former time desolate and waste.8
30:4 By the brush they would gather9
salt herbs,
and the root of the broom tree was their bread.
30:5 They were banished from the community,10
(people11
shouted at them
as they would at thieves)12
30:6 so that they had to live13
in the dry stream beds14
in the holes of the ground and among the rocks.
30:7 They brayed15
among bushes
and were huddled together16
under the nettles.
30:8 Sons of senseless and nameless people,17
they were driven out of the land.
Job’s Indignities
30:9 And now I have become their taunt song,
I have become a saying18
among them.
30:10 They detest me and keep their distance,19
they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
30:11 Because God has untied20
my cord and afflicted me;
they cast off restraint in my presence.21
30:12 On my right the young rabble22
rise up,
they drive me from place to place,23
and they build up siege ramps against me.24
30:13 They destroy25
my path,
they succeed in destroying me26
without anyone helping27
them.
30:14 They come in as through a wide breach;
amid the crash28
they come rolling in.29
30:15 Terrors are turned loose30
on me,
they drive away31
my honor like the wind,
and like a cloud my deliverance has passed away.
Job’s Despondency
30:16 And now my soul pours itself out within me;32
days of suffering take hold of me.
30:17 Night pierces33
my bones,34
my gnawing pains35
never rest.
30:18 With great power he grasps my clothing;36
he binds me like the collar37
of my tunic.
30:19 He has thrown me into the mud,
and I have come to resemble dust and ashes.
30:20 I cry out to you,38
but you do not answer me,
I stand up,39
and you only consider me.40
30:21 You have become cruel to me,41
with the strength of your hand you attack me.42
30:22 You pick me up on the wind and make me ride
on it;43
you toss me about44
in the storm.45
30:23 I know that you are bringing46
me to death,
to the meeting place for all the living.
The Contrast With the Past
30:24 Surely, one does not stretch out his hand
against a broken man47
when he cries for help in his distress.48
30:25 Have I not wept for the unfortunate?49
Was not my soul grieved for the poor?
30:26 But when I hoped for good, trouble came;
when I expected light, then darkness came.
30:27 My heart50
is in turmoil51
unceasingly;52
the days of my affliction confront me.
30:28 I go about blackened,53
but not by the sun;
I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
30:29 I have become a brother of jackals
and a companion of ostriches.54
30:30 My skin has turned dark on me,55
my body56
is hot with fever.57
30:31 My harp is used for58
mourning
and my pipe for the sound of weeping.