Job 30  Christian Standard Bible

30 But now they mock^(A) me,
men younger than I am,
whose fathers I would have refused to put
with my sheep dogs.
² What use to me was the strength of their hands?
Their vigor had left them.
³ Emaciated from poverty and hunger,
they gnawed the dry land,
the desolate wasteland by night.
⁴ They plucked mallow^[a](B) among the shrubs,
and the roots of the broom tree were their food.
⁵ They were banished from human society;
people shouted at them as if they were thieves.
⁶ They are living on the slopes of the wadis,
among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
⁷ They bray among the shrubs;
they huddle beneath the thistles.
⁸ Foolish^(C) men, without even a name.
They were forced to leave the land.

⁹ Now I am mocked by their songs;^(D)
I have become an object of scorn to them.
¹⁰ They despise me and keep their distance from me;^(E)
they do not hesitate to spit^(F) in my face.
¹¹ Because God has loosened my^[b] bowstring and oppressed me,
they have cast off restraint in my presence.^(G)
12 The rabble^[c] rise up at my right;
they trap^[d] my feet
and construct their siege ramp^[e] against me.^(H)
13 They tear up my path;
they contribute to my destruction,^(I)
without anyone to help them.
¹⁴ They advance as through a gaping breach;
they keep rolling in through the ruins.^(J)
15 Terrors^(K) are turned loose against me;
they chase my dignity away like the wind,
and my prosperity has passed by like a cloud.

¹⁶ Now my life is poured out before me,
and days of suffering^(L) have seized me.
¹⁷ Night pierces my bones,
but my gnawing pains never rest.^(M)
18 My clothing is distorted with great force;
he chokes me by the neck of my garment.^[f]
19 He throws me into the mud,
and I have become like dust and ashes.^(N)

²⁰ I cry out to you for help, but you do not answer me;^(O)
when I stand up, you merely look at me.
²¹ You have turned against me with cruelty;
you harass^(P) me with your strong hand.
²² You lift me up on the wind and make me ride it;
you scatter me in the storm.^(Q)
23 Yes, I know that you will lead me to death—
the place^(R) appointed for all who live.

²⁴ Yet no one would stretch out his hand
against a ruined person^[g]
when he cries out to him for help
because of his distress.^(S)
25 Have I not wept for those who have fallen on hard times?
Has my soul not grieved for the needy?^(T)
26 But when I hoped for good, evil came;
when I looked for light, darkness^(U) came.
²⁷ I am churning within^[h] and cannot rest;
days of suffering confront me.
²⁸ I walk about blackened, but not by the sun.^[i]
I stood in the assembly and cried out for help.
²⁹ I have become a brother to jackals
and a companion of ostriches.
³⁰ My skin blackens and flakes off,^[j]
and my bones burn with fever.^(V)
31 My lyre is used for mourning
and my flute for the sound of weeping.^(W)