Job 30 — Job's Lament of Mockery and Abandonment

1But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, Whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.💡

2Yea, the strength of their hands, whereto should it profit me? Men in whom ripe age is perished.💡

3They are gaunt with want and famine; They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.💡

4They pluck salt-wort by the bushes; And the roots of the broom are their food.💡

5They are driven forth from the midst of men; They cry after them as after a thief;💡

6So that they dwell in frightful valleys, In holes of the earth and of the rocks.💡

7Among the bushes they bray; Under the nettles they are gathered together.💡

8They are children of fools, yea, children of base men; They were scourged out of the land.💡

9And now I am become their song, Yea, I am a byword unto them.💡

10They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, And spare not to spit in my face.💡

11For he hath loosed his cord, and afflicted me; And they have cast off the bridle before me.💡

12Upon my right hand rise the rabble; They thrust aside my feet, And they cast up against me their ways of destruction.💡

13They mar my path, They set forward my calamity, Even men that have no helper.💡

14As through a wide breach they come: In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me.💡

15Terrors are turned upon me; They chase mine honor as the wind; And my welfare is passed away as a cloud.💡

16And now my soul is poured out within me; Days of affliction have taken hold upon me.💡

17In the night season my bones are pierced in me, And the pains that gnaw me take no rest.💡

18By God's great force is my garment disfigured; It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.💡

19He hath cast me into the mire, And I am become like dust and ashes.💡

20I cry unto thee, and thou dost not answer me: I stand up, and thou gazest at me.💡

21Thou art turned to be cruel to me; With the might of thy hand thou persecutest me.💡

22Thou liftest me up to the wind, thou causest me to ride upon it; And thou dissolvest me in the storm.💡

23For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, And to the house appointed for all living.💡

24Howbeit doth not one stretch out the hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?💡

25Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?💡

26When I looked for good, then evil came; And when I waited for light, there came darkness.💡

27My heart is troubled, and resteth not; Days of affliction are come upon me.💡

28I go mourning without the sun: I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.💡

29I am a brother to jackals, And a companion to ostriches.💡

30My skin is black, and falleth from me, And my bones are burned with heat.💡

31Therefore is my harp turned to mourning, And my pipe into the voice of them that weep.💡