Job - Chapter 30 | New International Version

  • 1. But now they mock me, men younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
  • 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 the parched land in desolate wastelands at night.
  • 4. In the brush they gathered salt herbs, and their food was the root of the broom tree.
  • 5. They were banished from their fellow men, 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.
  • 7. They brayed among the bushes and huddled in the undergrowth.
  • 8. A base and nameless brood, they were driven out of the land.
  • 9. And now their sons mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.
  • 10. They detest me and keep their distance; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
  • 11. Now that God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they throw off restraint in my presence.
  • 12. On my right the tribe attacks; they lay snares for my feet, they build their siege ramps against me.
  • 13. They break up my road; they succeed in destroying me-- without anyone's helping them.
  • 14. They advance as through a gaping breach; amid the ruins they come rolling in.
  • 15. Terrors overwhelm me; my dignity is driven away as by the wind, my safety vanishes like a cloud.
  • 16. And now my life ebbs away; days of suffering grip me.
  • 17. Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never rest.
  • 18. In his great power God becomes like clothing to me; he binds me like the neck of my garment.
  • 19. He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes.
  • 20. I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me.
  • 21. You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me.
  • 22. You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm.
  • 23. I know you will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
  • 24. Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man when he cries for help in his distress.
  • 25. Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor?
  • 26. Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness.
  • 27. The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me.
  • 28. I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
  • 29. I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of owls.
  • 30. My skin grows black and peels; my body burns with fever.
  • 31. My harp is tuned to mourning, and my flute to the sound of wailing.
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