Job 30:23-31
The Message
What Did I Do to Deserve This?
20-23 “I shout for help, God, and get nothing, no answer!
I stand to face you in protest, and you give me a blank stare!
You’ve turned into my tormenter—
you slap me around, knock me about.
You raised me up so I was riding high
and then dropped me, and I crashed.
I know you’re determined to kill me,
to put me six feet under.
24-31 “What did I do to deserve this?
Did I ever hit anyone who was calling for help?
Haven’t I wept for those who live a hard life,
been heartsick over the lot of the poor?
But where did it get me?
I expected good but evil showed up.
I looked for light but darkness fell.
My stomach’s in a constant churning, never settles down.
Each day confronts me with more suffering.
I walk under a black cloud. The sun is gone.
I stand in the congregation and protest.
I howl with the jackals,
I hoot with the owls.
I’m black-and-blue all over,
burning up with fever.
My fiddle plays nothing but the blues;
my mouth harp wails laments.”
Job 30:23-31
New International Version
24 “Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man(C)
when he cries for help in his distress.(D)
25 Have I not wept for those in trouble?(E)
Has not my soul grieved for the poor?(F)
26 Yet when I hoped for good, evil came;
when I looked for light, then came darkness.(G)
27 The churning inside me never stops;(H)
days of suffering confront me.(I)
28 I go about blackened,(J) but not by the sun;
I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.(K)
29 I have become a brother of jackals,(L)
a companion of owls.(M)
30 My skin grows black(N) and peels;(O)
my body burns with fever.(P)
31 My lyre is tuned to mourning,(Q)
and my pipe(R) to the sound of wailing.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.