Job30

¹But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, Whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.

²Yea, the strength of their hands, whereto should it profit me? Men in whom ripe age is perished.

³They are gaunt with want and famine; They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.

⁴They pluck salt-wort by the bushes; And the roots of the broom are their food.

⁵They are driven forth from the midst of men; They cry after them as after a thief;

⁶So that they dwell in frightful valleys, In holes of the earth and of the rocks.

⁷Among the bushes they bray; Under the nettles they are gathered together.

⁸They are children of fools, yea, children of base men; They were scourged out of the land.

⁹And now I am become their song, Yea, I am a byword unto them.

¹⁰They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, And spare not to spit in my face.

¹¹For he hath loosed his cord, and afflicted me; And they have cast off the bridle before me.

¹²Upon my right hand rise the rabble; They thrust aside my feet, And they cast up against me their ways of destruction.

¹³They mar my path, They set forward my calamity, Even men that have no helper.

¹⁴As through a wide breach they come: In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me.

¹⁵Terrors are turned upon me; They chase mine honor as the wind; And my welfare is passed away as a cloud.

¹⁶And now my soul is poured out within me; Days of affliction have taken hold upon me.

¹⁷In the night season my bones are pierced in me, And the pains that gnaw me take no rest.

¹⁸By God’s great force is my garment disfigured; It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.

¹⁹He hath cast me into the mire, And I am become like dust and ashes.

²⁰I cry unto thee, and thou dost not answer me: I stand up, and thou gazest at me.

²¹Thou art turned to be cruel to me; With the might of thy hand thou persecutest me.

²²Thou liftest me up to the wind, thou causest me to ride upon it; And thou dissolvest me in the storm.

²³For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, And to the house appointed for all living.

²⁴Howbeit doth not one stretch out the hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?

²⁵Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

²⁶When I looked for good, then evil came; And when I waited for light, there came darkness.

²⁷My heart is troubled, and resteth not; Days of affliction are come upon me.

²⁸I go mourning without the sun: I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.

²⁹I am a brother to jackals, And a companion to ostriches.

³⁰My skin is black, and falleth from me, And my bones are burned with heat.

³¹Therefore is my harp turned to mourning, And my pipe into the voice of them that weep.