Job, 30

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

1. And now I am the laughing-stock of people much younger whose fathers I considered unfit to put with the dogs of my flock.

2. Yea, whereto [might] the strength of their hands [profit] me, in whom old age was perished?

2. Not even their arms were helpful to me for all their vigor had gone,

3. For want and famine [they were] solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.

3. worn out by hunger and want. They roamed the parched wasteland,

4. Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots [for] their meat.

4. they gathered salt herbs from the brushwood, their food was the roots of the broom plant.

5. They were driven forth from among [men], (they cried after them as [after] a thief;)

5. They were banished by their fellowmen who shouted at them as if they were thieves.

6. To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, [in] caves of the earth, and [in] the rocks.

6. They were forced to seek a home in caves, among the ravines and rock crevices.

7. Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.

7. They brayed among the bushes and huddled in the underbrush.

8. [They were] children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.

8. They were driven from the land for being base and senseless men.

9. And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.

9. And now their sons sing of my disgrace; I have become a byword among them.

10. They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.

10. They do not hesitate to spit before me; they abhor me and keep their distance.

11. Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me.

11. Seeing that God has unstrung my bow, they have cast off restraint in my presence.

12. Upon [my] right [hand] rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.

12. On my right the rabble rise, build siege ramps and lay snares.

13. They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper.

13. They attack, with none to restrain them.

14. They came [upon me] as a wide breaking in [of waters]: in the desolation they rolled themselves [upon me].

14. They advance, as through a wide breach; they come in waves amid the uproar.

15. Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.

15. Terror grips me; my dignity is blown by the wind my safety has vanished like a passing cloud.

16. And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.

16. And now my soul is poured out because of my days of grief and suffering.

17. My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.

17. At night gnawing pain pierces my bones. My veins have no rest.

18. By the great force [of my disease] is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.

18. With power God has caught my garment, binding me about as the collar of my coat;

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

19. throwing me into the mire, where I am now like dust.

20. I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me [not].

20. I cry to you, O God, but there's no answer; I stand but you merely look on.

21. Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me.

21. You have become cruel to me, you pursue me mercilessly with your strong hand.

22. Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride [upon it], and dissolvest my substance.

22. You lift me up and make me ride till the storm tosses and throws me down like rain.

23. For I know [that] thou wilt bring me [to] death, and [to] the house appointed for all living.

23. I know you will bring me down to death, the destiny of all the living.

24. Howbeit he will not stretch out [his] hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.

24. I did not raise my hand against the poor when he cried for help in his disaster.

25. Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was [not] my soul grieved for the poor?

25. Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor?

26. When I looked for good, then evil came [unto me]: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.

26. But when I looked for good, I encountered evil; when I waited for light, darkness came.

27. My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.

27. My heart in turmoil is never at peace, for days of distress have come upon me...

28. I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, [and] I cried in the congregation.

28. I go about darkened, but not by the sun; if I rise in council, it is to voice my grief.

29. I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.

29. I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of owls.

30. My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.

30. My skin blackens and peels; my bones burn with fever.

31. My harp also is [turned] to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.

31. My harp is tuned to laments, and my flute to sounds of weeping.