NETfree - Job - 30

30:1  "But now they mock me, those who are younger than I, whose fathers I disdained too much to put with my sheep dogs.

30:2  Moreover, the strength of their hands - what use was it to me? Men whose strength had perished;

30:3  gaunt with want and hunger, they would gnaw the parched land, in former time desolate and waste.

30:4  By the brush they would gather herbs from the salt marshes, and the root of the broom tree was their food.

30:5  They were banished from the community - people shouted at them like they would shout at thieves -

30:6  so that they had to live in the dry stream beds, in the holes of the ground, and among the rocks.

30:7  They brayed like animals among the bushes and were huddled together under the nettles.

30:8  Sons of senseless and nameless people, they were driven out of the land with whips.

30:9  "And now I have become their taunt song; I have become a byword among them.

30:10  They detest me and maintain their distance; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

30:11  Because God has untied my tent cord and afflicted me, people throw off all restraint in my presence.

30:12  On my right the young rabble rise up; they drive me from place to place, and build up siege ramps against me.

30:13  They destroy my path; they succeed in destroying me without anyone assisting them.

30:14  They come in as through a wide breach; amid the crash they come rolling in.

30:15  Terrors are turned loose on me; they drive away my honor like the wind, and like a cloud my deliverance has passed away.

30:16  "And now my soul pours itself out within me; days of suffering take hold of me.

30:17  Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never cease.

30:18  With great power God grasps my clothing; he binds me like the collar 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, but you do not answer me; I stand up, and you only look at me.

30:21  You have become cruel to me; with the strength of your hand you attack me.

30:22  You pick me up on the wind and make me ride on it; you toss me about in the storm.

30:23  I know that you are bringing me to death, to the meeting place for all the living.

30:24  "Surely one does not stretch out his hand against a broken man when he cries for help in his distress.

30:25  Have I not wept for the unfortunate? 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 heart is in turmoil unceasingly; the days of my affliction confront me.

30:28  I go about blackened, 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.

30:30  My skin has turned dark on me; my body is hot with fever.

30:31  My harp is used for mourning and my flute for the sound of weeping.