Job, 30

1. And now I am the laughing-stock of people who are younger than I am and whose parents I would have disdained to put with the dogs guarding my flock.

1. "But now they make sport of me, men who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.

2. And what use to me was the strength of their hands? - enfeebled as they were,

2. What could I gain from the strength of their hands, men whose vigor is gone?

3. worn out by want and hunger, for they used to gnaw the roots of the thirsty ground -- that place of gloom, ruin and desolation-

3. Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry and desolate ground;

4. they used to pick saltwort among the scrub, making their meals off roots of broom.

4. they pick mallow and the leaves of bushes, and to warm themselves the roots of the broom.

5. Outlawed from human company, which raised hue and cry against them, as against thieves,

5. They are driven out from among men; they shout after them as after a thief.

6. they made their homes in the sides of ravines, in holes in the earth or in clefts of rock.

6. In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell, in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

7. You could hear them braying from the bushes as they huddled together in the thistles.

7. Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they huddle together.

8. Children of scoundrels, worse, nameless people, the very outcasts of society!

8. A senseless, a disreputable brood, they have been whipped out of the land.

9. And these are the ones who now make up songs about me and use me as a byword!

9. "And now I have become their song, I am a byword to them.

10. Filled with disgust, they keep their distance, on seeing me, they spit without restraint.

10. They abhor me, they keep aloof from me; they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.

11. And since God has loosened my bow-string and afflicted me, they too throw off the bridle in my presence.

11. Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me, they have cast off restraint in my presence.

12. Their brats surge forward on my right, to see when I am having a little peace, and advance on me with threatening strides.

12. On my right hand the rabble rise, they drive me forth, they cast up against me their ways of destruction.

13. They cut off all means of escape seizing the chance to destroy me, and no one stops them.

13. They break up my path, they promote my calamity; no one restrains them.

14. They move in, as if through a wide breach, and I go tumbling beneath the rubble.

14. As through a wide breach they come; amid the crash they roll on.

15. Terror rounds on me, my confidence is dispersed as though by the wind, my hope of safety vanishes like a cloud.

15. Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

16. And now the life in me trickles away, days of grief have gripped me.

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

17. At night-time sickness saps my bones I am gnawed by wounds that never sleep.

17. The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.

18. Violently, he has caught me by my clothes, has gripped me by the collar of my coat.

18. With violence it seizes my garment; it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.

19. He has thrown me into the mud; I am no more than dust and ashes.

19. God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.

20. I cry to you, and you give me no answer; I stand before you, but you take no notice.

20. I cry to thee and thou dost not answer me; I stand, and thou dost not heed me.

21. You have grown cruel to me, and your strong hand torments me unmercifully.

21. Thou hast turned cruel to me; with the might of thy hand thou dost persecute me.

22. You carry me away astride the wind and blow me to pieces in a tempest.

22. Thou liftest me up on the wind, thou makest me ride on it, and thou tossest me about in the roar of the storm.

23. Yes, I know that you are taking me towards death, to the common meeting-place of all the living.

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

24. Yet have I ever laid a hand on the poor when they cried out for justice in calamity?

24. "Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster cry for help?

25. Have I not wept for those whose life is hard, felt pity for the penniless?

25. Did not I weep for him whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the poor?

26. I hoped for happiness, but sorrow came; I looked for light, but there was darkness.

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

27. My stomach seethes, is never still, days of suffering have struck me.

27. My heart is in turmoil, and is never still; days of affliction come to meet me.

28. Sombre I go, yet no one comforts me, and if I rise in the council, I rise to weep.

28. I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.

29. I have become brother to the jackal and companion to the ostrich.

29. I am a brother of jackals, and a companion of ostriches.

30. My skin has turned black on me, my bones are burnt with fever.

30. My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat.

31. My harp is tuned to dirges, my pipe to the voice of mourners.

31. My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.