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New Testament
Job 30
Job's Shame in the Present
301But those far younger than I am now laugh at me—
men whose fathers I would not have allowed to serve with my sheepdogs.
Their vigor had failed.
3Emaciated from famine and hunger,
they gnawed desert plants in the desolate wasteland.
4They picked marsh plants among the brush,
and their food was the roots of broom bushes.
5They were driven out of the community.
People shouted at them like thieves.
6They lived in dry streambeds,
in holes among the dust and the rocks.
7They brayed between shrubs,
and they huddled under thorn bushes.
8Sons of fools and nameless nobodies,
they were driven out of the land with whips.
9But now I am the target of their mocking songs,
and my name has become proverbial as a term of scorn.
10They despise me and keep their distance.
They do not hesitate to spit in my face.
and he has afflicted me,
so they throw off all restraint in my presence.
12At my right hand this rabble rises up like a mob.
They trip my feet.
They besiege me with their plans to destroy me.
13They cut off my path to escape.
They try to benefit from my destruction.
They need no one to help them.
14They pour through the breach in my wall.
They roll in through the ruins.
15Terrors are unleashed against me.
My prestige is blown away by the wind.
My security has passed by like a cloud.
16Now my soul is being poured out within me.
Days of suffering have seized me.
17Night pierces my bones with pain.
The pain gnawing at me never stops.
18God tugs violently at my clothing.
He chokes me like the collar of my robe.
19He has thrown me into the mud,
and I have become like dust and ashes.
20I cry to you for help, but you do not answer me.
21You have become cruel to me.
With a strong hand you assault me.
22You lift me up with the wind, and it carries me away.
You scatter me in the raging storm.
23Yes, I know that you are bringing me down to death,
to the home where all the living meet.
24Will he really stretch out his hand against a pile of ruins,
25Didn't I weep for those who live through hard days?
Didn't my soul grieve for the needy?
26But when I waited for good, evil came.
When I hoped for light, darkness came.
They are never quiet.
Days of suffering confront me.
28I walk around darkened, but not by the sun.
I stand in the assembly and cry for help.
29I have become a brother to jackals,
a companion for screeching ostriches.
30My skin turns black and falls off,
and my bones burn with fever.
31My lyre plays only sad songs.
My flute accompanies only the sound of weeping.
Footnotes
- 30:2 The pronouns their and they in verses 2 to 7 may refer either to the men in verse 1, to their fathers, or to both. The tenses, therefore, could be either past or present.
- 30:11 Or tent cord
- 30:20 The translation follows some Hebrew manuscripts and ancient versions, as well as the parallelism. Other manuscripts read you direct your attention against me.
- 30:24 This verse is difficult.
- 30:27 Literally my intestines