Job 30

1But now those younger than I mock me, whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.

2Even what is the strength of their hands to me, since vigor has perished from them?

3Solitary from want and famine, they gnaw the dry wasteland—the desolation and ruin of yesterday.

4They pluck mallows by the shrubs, and juniper roots are their food.

5They are driven out from the midst and shouted at like a thief.

6They dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in holes in the ground and rocks.

7They bray among the bushes and gather together under the nettles.

8Children of fools, even children without a name, driven out from the land.

9Now I have become their song, and I am their byword.

10They abhor me, they keep far from me, and do not withhold spit from my face.

11Because he has loosed his cord, my cord, and afflicted me, they have cast off the bridle from before me.

12On my right the youths rise up, thrusting aside my feet and raising against me their paths of destruction.

13They break up my path to my ruin and advance my disaster, with no helper for them.

14Like a wide breach they come to me; they roll themselves in the destruction.

15Terrors have turned against me; they pursue my soul like the wind, and my deliverance passes away like a cloud.

16Now my soul pours out within me; days of affliction seize me.

17At night my bones are pierced through me, and my sinews do not rest.

18Great power distorts my garment; like my tunic's collar it girds me.

19He has hurled me into the clay, and I have become like dust and ashes.

20I cry out to you, but you do not respond to me. I stand up, and you look upon me.

21You have become cruel toward me; with your hand's might you oppose me.

22You lift me to the wind, make me ride upon it, and dissolve my substance.

23For I know that you will bring me back to death, to the house of meeting for all living.

24Yet does one not extend a hand in disaster, or therefore cry out in his ruin?

25Did I not weep for the grievous day? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

26For when I hoped for good, evil came; and when I waited for light, darkness came.

27My heart boiled and did not quiet; days of affliction met me.

28I walked darkly without the sun; I arose in the assembly and cried out.

29I am a brother to jackals and a fellow to ostriches.

30My skin blackens as it peels from me, and my bones burn with heat.

31My harp has turned to mourning, and my organ to the sound of weeping.