Job 30:1-13

English Standard Version

30 “But now they ^(A)laugh at me,
    men who are ^(B)younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
    to set with the dogs of my flock.
² What could I gain from the strength of their hands,
    ^(C)men whose ^(D)vigor is gone?
³ Through want and hard hunger
    they ^(E)gnaw ^(F)the dry ground by night in ^(G)waste and desolation;
⁴ they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes,
    and the roots of the broom tree for their food.^[a]
5 (H)They are driven out from human company;
    they shout after them as after a thief.
⁶ In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell,
    in holes of the earth and of ^(I)the rocks.
⁷ Among the bushes they ^(J)bray;
    under ^(K)the nettles they huddle together.
⁸ A senseless, a nameless brood,
    they have been whipped out of the land.

⁹ “And now I have become their ^(L)song;
    I am ^(M)a byword to them.
¹⁰ They ^(N)abhor me; they keep aloof from me;
    they do not hesitate to ^(O)spit at the sight of me.
¹¹ Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me,
    they have cast off restraint^[b] in my presence.
¹² On my ^(P)right hand the rabble rise;
    they push away my feet;
    they ^(Q)cast up against me their ways of destruction.
¹³ They break up my path;
    they promote my ^(R)calamity;
    they need no one to help them.