NIV Job 30 Chapter
30:1
"But now they mock me, men younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
30:2
Of what use was the strength of their hands to me, since their vigor had gone from them?
30:3
Haggard from want and hunger, they roamed the parched land in desolate wastelands at night.
30:4
In the brush they gathered salt herbs, and their food was the root of the broom tree.
30:5
They were banished from their fellow men, shouted at as if they were thieves.
30:6
They were forced to live in the dry stream beds, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
30:7
They brayed among the bushes and huddled in the undergrowth.
30:8
A base and nameless brood, they were driven out of the land.
30:9
"And now their sons mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.
30:10
They detest me and keep their distance; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
30:11
Now that God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they throw off restraint in my presence.
30:12
On my right the tribe attacks; they lay snares for my feet, they build their siege ramps against me.
30:13
They break up my road; they succeed in destroying me-- without anyone's helping them.
30:14
`'They advance as through a gaping breach; amid the ruins they come rolling in.
30:15
Terrors overwhelm me; my dignity is driven away as by the wind, my safety vanishes like a cloud.
30:16
"And now my life ebbs away; days of suffering grip me.
30:17
Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never rest.
30:18
In his great power God becomes like clothing to me; he binds me like the neck of my garment.
30:19
He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes.
30:20
"I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me.
30:21
You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me.
30:22
You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm.
30:23
I know you will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
30:24
"Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man when he cries for help in his distress.
30:25
Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor?
30:26
Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness.
30:27
The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me.
30:28
I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
30:29
I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of owls.
30:30
My skin grows black and peels; my body burns with fever.
30:31
My harp is tuned to mourning, and my flute to the sound of wailing.