Job
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Job 30

Job’s Present State Is Humiliating

1“But now those younger than I mock me,
Whose fathers I disdained 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 want and famine they are gaunt
Who gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation,
4 Who pluck [a]mallow 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 dwell in dreadful [b]valleys,
In holes of the earth and of the rocks.
7 “Among the bushes they [c]cry out;
Under the nettles they are gathered together.
8 “[d]Fools, even [e]those without a name,
They were scourged from the land.

9 “And now I have become their [f]taunt,
I have even become a byword to them.
10 “They abhor me and stand aloof from me,
And they do not [g]refrain from spitting at my face.
11 “Because [h]He has loosed [i]His [j]bowstring and afflicted me,
They have cast off the bridle before me.
12 “On the right hand their [k]brood arises;
They thrust aside my feet and build up against me their ways of destruction.
13 “They break up my path,
They profit [l]from my destruction;
No one restrains them.
14 “As through a wide breach they come,
[m]Amid the tempest they roll on.
15 “Terrors are turned against me;
They pursue my [n]honor as the wind,
And my [o]prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

16 “And now my soul is poured out [p]within me;
Days of affliction have seized me.
17 “At night it pierces my bones [q]within me,
And my gnawing pains take no rest.
18 “By a great force my garment is distorted;
It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
19 “He has cast 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 [r]become cruel to me;
With the might of Your hand You persecute me.
22 “You lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride;
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 not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,
Or in his disaster therefore cry out for help?
25 “Have I not wept for the [s]one whose life is hard?
Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
26 “When I expected good, then evil came;
When I waited for light, then darkness came.
27 “[t]I am seething within and cannot relax;
Days of affliction confront me.
28 “I go about [u]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 [v]on me,
And my bones burn with [w]fever.
31 “Therefore my harp [x]is turned to mourning,
And my flute to the sound of those who weep.

Footnotes

  1. Job 30:4 I.e. plant of the salt marshes
  2. Job 30:6 Or wadis
  3. Job 30:7 Or bray
  4. Job 30:8 Lit Sons of fools
  5. Job 30:8 Lit sons
  6. Job 30:9 Lit song
  7. Job 30:10 Lit withhold spit from my face
  8. Job 30:11 Or they
  9. Job 30:11 Some mss read my
  10. Job 30:11 Or cord
  11. Job 30:12 Possibly sprout or offspring
  12. Job 30:13 Lit for
  13. Job 30:14 Lit Under
  14. Job 30:15 Or nobility
  15. Job 30:15 Or welfare
  16. Job 30:16 Lit upon
  17. Job 30:17 Lit from upon
  18. Job 30:21 Lit turned to be
  19. Job 30:25 Lit hard of day
  20. Job 30:27 Lit My inward parts are boiling
  21. Job 30:28 Or blackened, but not by the heat of the sun
  22. Job 30:30 Lit from upon
  23. Job 30:30 Lit heat
  24. Job 30:31 Lit becomes
Job 30