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Job 30
EasyEnglish Bible
Job 30
EasyEnglish Bible
Job continues to speak[a]
30 ‘But now it is different.
Men who are younger than I am laugh at me.
I would not even trust their fathers
to take care of my sheep.
2 The work that those old men could do was no help to me.
They no longer were strong.
3 They were weak and thin because they were hungry.
They had to look for food in the desert at night.
They found roots to eat in dry places.
4 They pulled up plants in the desert
as their food.
They burned the roots of bushes
to keep themselves warm.
5 People chased them away from their towns,
as if they were shouting at robbers.
6 They had to live in dry valleys,
among the rocks, or in caves.
7 They cried aloud like animals among the bushes.
They hid together under the thorn bushes.
8 They were foolish people that nobody respected.
People chased them away from their land.
9 But now their sons sing songs that insult me.
They tell jokes about me.[b]
10 They hate me
and they do not come near me.
When they see me,
they spit at my face.
11 God has made me weak and helpless.
People do to me anything that they want to do.
12 From one side, the crowd attacks me.
They make me run away.
They are like an army that builds a road
to come and attack me.
13 They stop me from escaping.
They are ready to destroy me.
They do not need anyone to help them.
14 I cannot stop them when they attack me.
They rush forward to knock me down.
15 So I am always afraid.
My honour has disappeared
as if a strong wind has blown it away.
My riches have also gone,
like a cloud that passes across the sky.
16 Now I know that my life will soon end.
Every day I continue to suffer.
17 At night, my bones are painful.
The pain is always there in my body.
18 God has used his power to take hold of me.
He has held my shirt around my neck.
19 He has thrown me down into the mud.
I am no better than dust and ashes on the ground.
20 I call aloud to you, God,
but you do not answer me.
When I stand to pray,
you only look at me.
21 You have become cruel to me.
You have used your strength to attack me.
22 You take hold of me and you carry me away,
like a strong wind that blows.
You use a storm to destroy me.
23 I know that you are already taking me to my death.
Everyone who lives has to go to that place.
24 When someone is weak and in trouble,
people do not usually try to hurt him.
When someone calls aloud for help,
they do not refuse to help him.
25 When other people were in trouble,
I wept for them.
When I saw poor people
it made me very upset.
26 But when I hoped for good things to happen,
trouble came instead.
When I looked for light to shine on me,
everything became dark.
27 I hurt inside me all the time.
Every day I suffer from pain.
28 Illness has caused my skin to become black.
It is not the sun that has made that happen.
I stand up in the public meeting place
and I call aloud for help.
29 I have become like the jackals and the ostriches.
My sad voice sounds like them.
30 My skin has become black,
and bits of skin fall off.
My body is hot with fever.[c]
31 Now, when I make music with my harp,
I only sing funeral songs.
When I make music with my flute,
I do it for people who are weeping.’
Footnotes
- 30:1 In chapter 30, Job speaks about his troubles. He has no money. He has no friends who can help him. But he does have a lot of pain. And the worst thing is that God will not answer his questions any more (verse 20).
- 30:9 A joke is something funny that people say. They used jokes to laugh at Job.
- 30:30 If someone has a fever, illness has made their body become very hot.
Job 30
New International Version
Job 30
New International Version
30 “But now they mock me,(A)
men younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
to put with my sheep dogs.(B)
2 Of what use was the strength of their hands to me,
since their vigor had gone from them?
3 Haggard from want and hunger,
they roamed[a] the parched land(C)
in desolate wastelands(D) at night.(E)
4 In the brush they gathered salt herbs,(F)
and their food[b] was the root of the broom bush.(G)
5 They were banished from human society,
shouted at as if they were thieves.
6 They were forced to live in the dry stream beds,
among the rocks and in holes in the ground.(H)
7 They brayed(I) among the bushes(J)
and huddled in the undergrowth.
8 A base and nameless brood,(K)
they were driven out of the land.(L)
9 “And now those young men mock me(M) in song;(N)
I have become a byword(O) among them.
10 They detest me(P) and keep their distance;
they do not hesitate to spit in my face.(Q)
11 Now that God has unstrung my bow(R) and afflicted me,(S)
they throw off restraint(T) in my presence.
12 On my right(U) the tribe[c] attacks;
they lay snares(V) for my feet,(W)
they build their siege ramps against me.(X)
13 They break up my road;(Y)
they succeed in destroying me.(Z)
‘No one can help him,’ they say.
14 They advance as through a gaping breach;(AA)
amid the ruins they come rolling in.
15 Terrors(AB) overwhelm me;(AC)
my dignity is driven away as by the wind,
my safety vanishes like a cloud.(AD)
16 “And now my life ebbs away;(AE)
days of suffering grip me.(AF)
17 Night pierces my bones;
my gnawing pains never rest.(AG)
18 In his great power(AH) God becomes like clothing to me[d];
he binds me like the neck of my garment.
19 He throws me into the mud,(AI)
and I am reduced to dust and ashes.(AJ)
20 “I cry out to you,(AK) God, but you do not answer;(AL)
I stand up, but you merely look at me.
21 You turn on me ruthlessly;(AM)
with the might of your hand(AN) you attack me.(AO)
22 You snatch me up and drive me before the wind;(AP)
you toss me about in the storm.(AQ)
23 I know you will bring me down to death,(AR)
to the place appointed for all the living.(AS)
24 “Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man(AT)
when he cries for help in his distress.(AU)
25 Have I not wept for those in trouble?(AV)
Has not my soul grieved for the poor?(AW)
26 Yet when I hoped for good, evil came;
when I looked for light, then came darkness.(AX)
27 The churning inside me never stops;(AY)
days of suffering confront me.(AZ)
28 I go about blackened,(BA) but not by the sun;
I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.(BB)
29 I have become a brother of jackals,(BC)
a companion of owls.(BD)
30 My skin grows black(BE) and peels;(BF)
my body burns with fever.(BG)
31 My lyre is tuned to mourning,(BH)
and my pipe(BI) to the sound of wailing.
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