Job 30:1-15

New Living Translation

Job Speaks of His Anguish

30 “But now I am mocked by people younger than I,
    by young men whose fathers are not worthy to run with my sheepdogs.
²A lot of good they are to me—
    those worn-out wretches!
³They are gaunt from poverty and hunger.
    They claw the dry ground in desolate wastelands.
⁴They pluck wild greens from among the bushes
    and eat from the roots of broom trees.
⁵They are driven from human society,
    and people shout at them as if they were thieves.
⁶So now they live in frightening ravines,
    in caves and among the rocks.
⁷They sound like animals howling among the bushes,
    huddled together beneath the nettles.
⁸They are nameless fools,
    outcasts from society.

⁹“And now they mock me with vulgar songs!
    They taunt me!
¹⁰They despise me and won’t come near me,
    except to spit in my face.
¹¹For God has cut my bowstring.
    He has humbled me,
    so they have thrown off all restraint.
¹²These outcasts oppose me to my face.
    They send me sprawling
    and lay traps in my path.
¹³They block my road
    and do everything they can to destroy me.
They know I have no one to help me.
¹⁴    They come at me from all directions.
They jump on me when I am down.
¹⁵    I live in terror now.
My honor has blown away in the wind,
    and my prosperity has vanished like a cloud.