Job 30
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?
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 brush9 they would gather10 herbs from the salt marshes,11
and the root of the broom tree was their food.
30:5 They were banished from the community12 –
people13 shouted at them
like they would shout at thieves14 –
30:6 so that they had to live15
in the dry stream beds,16
in the holes of the ground, and among the rocks.
30:7 They brayed17 like animals among the bushes
and were huddled together18 under the nettles.
30:8 Sons of senseless and nameless people,19
they were driven out of the land with whips.20
Job’s Indignities
30:9 “And now I have become their taunt song;
I have become a byword21 among them.
30:10 They detest me and maintain their distance;22
they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
30:11 Because God has untied23 my tent cord and afflicted me,
people throw off all restraint in my presence.24
30:12 On my right the young rabble25 rise up;
they drive me from place to place,26
and build up siege ramps27 against me.28
30:13 They destroy29 my path;
they succeed in destroying me30
without anyone assisting31 them.
30:14 They come in as through a wide breach;
amid the crash32 they come rolling in.33
30:15 Terrors are turned loose34 on me;
they drive away35 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;36
days of suffering take hold of me.
30:17 Night pierces37 my bones;38
my gnawing pains39 never cease.
30:18 With great power God40 grasps my clothing;41
he binds me like the collar42 of my tunic.
30:19 He has flung me into the mud,
and I have come to resemble dust and ashes.
30:20 I cry out to you,43 but you do not answer me;
I stand up,44 and you only look at me.45
30:21 You have become cruel to me;46
with the strength of your hand you attack me.47
30:22 You pick me up on the wind and make me ride on it;48
you toss me about49 in the storm.50
30:23 I know that you are bringing51 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 man52
when he cries for help in his distress.53
30:25 Have I not wept for the unfortunate?54
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 heart55 is in turmoil56 unceasingly;57
the days of my affliction confront me.
30:28 I go about blackened,58 but not by the sun;
in the assembly I stand up and cry for help.
30:29 I have become a brother to jackals
and a companion of ostriches.59
30:30 My skin has turned dark on me;60
my body61 is hot with fever.62
30:31 My harp is used for63 mourning
and my flute for the sound of weeping.