• Job’s Present State Is Humiliating

  • 1 “But now those who are younger than I mock me, Whose fathers I refused to put with the dogs of my flock.
  • 2 “Indeed, what good was the strength of their hands to me? Vigor had perished from them.
  • 3 “From poverty and famine they are gaunt, They who gnaw at the dry ground by night in waste and desolation,
  • 4 Who pluck saltweed by the bushes, And whose food is the root of the broom shrub.
  • 5 “They are driven from the community; They shout against them as against a thief,
  • 6 So that they live on the slopes of ravines, In holes in the ground and among the rocks.
  • 7 “Among the bushes they cry out; Under the weeds they are gathered together.
  • 8 “Worthless fellows, even those without a name, They were cast out from the land.
  • 9 “And now I have become their taunt, And I have become a byword to them.
  • 10 “They loathe me and stand aloof from me, And they do not refrain from spitting in my face.
  • 11 “Because He has undone my bowstring and afflicted me, They have cast off the bridle before me.
  • 12 “On the right hand their mob arises; They push aside my feet and pile up their ways of destruction against me.
  • 13 “They break up my path, They promote my destruction; No one restrains them.
  • 14 “As through a wide gap they come, Amid the storm they roll on.
  • 15 “Sudden terrors are turned upon me; They chase away my dignity like the wind, And my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.
  • 16 “And now my soul is poured out within me; Days of misery have seized me.
  • 17 “At night it pierces my bones within me, And my gnawing pains do not rest.
  • 18 “By a great force my garment is distorted; It ties me up like the collar of my coat.
  • 19 “He has thrown me into the mire, And I have become like dust and ashes.
  • 20 “I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer me; I stand up, and You turn Your attention against me.
  • 21 “You have become cruel to me; With the strength of Your hand You persecute me.
  • 22 “You lift me up to the wind and make me ride it; And You dissolve me in a storm.
  • 23 “For I know that You will bring me to death, And to the house of meeting for all living.
  • 24 “Yet does one in a heap of ruins not reach out with his hand, Or in his disaster does he not cry out for help?
  • 25 “Have I not wept for the one whose life is hard? Was my soul not grieved for the needy?
  • 26 “When I expected good, evil came; When I waited for light, darkness came.
  • 27 “I am seething within and cannot rest; Days of misery confront me.
  • 28 “I go about mourning without comfort; I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help.
  • 29 “I have become a brother to jackals, And a companion of ostriches.
  • 30 “My skin turns black on me, And my bones burn with fever.
  • 31 “Therefore my harp is turned to mourning, And my flute to the sound of those who weep.