Job 30
Contemporary English Version
Job Continues
Young People Now Insult Me
30 Young people now insult me,
although their fathers
would have been a disgrace
to my sheep dogs.
2 And those who insult me
are helpless themselves.
3 They must claw the desert sand
in the dark for something
to satisfy their hunger.[a]
4 They gather tasteless shrubs
for food and firewood,
5 and they are run out of towns,
as though they were thieves.
6 Their only homes are ditches
or holes between rocks,
7 where they bray like donkeys
gathering around shrubs.
8 And like senseless donkeys
they are chased away.
Those Worthless Nobodies
9 Those worthless nobodies
make up jokes and songs
to disgrace me.
10 They are hateful
and keep their distance,
even while spitting
in my direction.
11 God has destroyed me,
and so they don't care
what they do.[b]
12 Their attacks never stop,
though I am defenseless,
and my feet are trapped.[c]
13 Without any help,
they prevent my escape,
destroying me completely[d]
14 and leaving me crushed.
15 Terror has me surrounded;
my reputation and my riches
have vanished like a cloud.
I Am Sick at Heart
16 I am sick at heart!
Pain has taken its toll.
17 Night chews on my bones,
causing endless torment,
18 and God has shrunk my skin,
choking me to death.[e]
19 I have been thrown in the dirt
and now am dirt myself.
20 I beg God for help,
but there is no answer;
and when I stand up,
he simply stares.
21 God has turned brutal,
22 stirring up a windstorm
to toss me about.
23 Soon he will send me home
to the world of the dead,
where we all must go.
24 No one refuses help to others,
when disaster strikes.[f]
25 I mourned for the poor
and those who suffered.
26 But when I beg for relief
and light,
all I receive are disaster
and darkness.
27 My stomach is tied in knots;
pain is my daily companion.
28 My days are dark and gloomy
and in the city council
I stand and cry out,
29 making mournful sounds
like jackals[g] and owls.
30 My skin is so parched,
that it peels right off,
and my bones are burning.
31 My only songs are sorrow
and sadness.
Footnotes
- 30.3 hunger: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 3.
- 30.11 God … do: Or “They have destroyed me, and so they don't care what else they do.”
- 30.12 trapped: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 12.
- 30.13 destroying … completely: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 30.18 death: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 18.
- 30.24 strikes: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 24.
- 30.29 jackals: Desert animals related to wolves, but smaller.
Iyov 30
Orthodox Jewish Bible
30 But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose avot I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my tzon.
2 Yea, what use was the koach of their hands to me, since their vigor hath perished?
3 For choser (want, lack) and hunger they gnawed the parched ground desolate and waste.
4 They cut up mallow plants by the bushes, and juniper roots for their lechem.
5 They were banished from among men, (they shouted after them as after a ganav);
6 To dwell in the clefts of the wadis, in holes of aphar, and in the rocks.
7 Among the bushes they brayed; tachat (under) the underbrush they were huddled together.
8 They were bnei naval, yea, sons of base men; they were driven forth out of ha’aretz.
9 And atah (now) am I their mocking song, yea, I am their byword.
10 They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not rok (spit) in my face [Mt 26:67].
11 Because He hath loosed my bowstring, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the resen (bridle) before me.
12 Upon my yamin (right hand) rise up the rabble; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.
13 They break up my road, they set forward my overthrow, they have no ozer (helper).
14 They approach me as through a wide breach; in the shoah (desolation, Holocaust), they rolled themselves upon me.
15 Ballahot (terrors) are turned upon me; they pursue my dignity like the ruach, and my safety passeth away like a cloud.
16 And now my nefesh ebbs away from me; the yemei oni have taken hold upon me.
17 My atzmot are pierced in me in the night, and my gnawing pains take no rest.
18 By great koach is my garment disfigured; it bindeth me about like the collar of my kuttonet (chiton, robe).
19 He hath cast me into the chomer, and I am become like aphar and ashes.
20 I cry unto Thee, and Thou dost answer me lo (not); I stand up, and Thou regardest me not.
21 Thou art become cruel to me; with Thy strong yad Thou opposest Thyself against me.
22 Thou liftest me up to the ruach; Thou causest me to drive along, and vanish in the roaring of the storm.
23 For I know that Thou wilt bring me down to mavet, to the bais mo’ed l’khol chai.
24 Yet will not one stretch out his yad in a heap of ruin, or cry out for help in his disaster.
25 Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? Was not my nefesh grieved for the evyon (needy)?
26 When I looked for tov, then rah came unto me; and when I waited for ohr, there came ofel (darkness).
27 My bowels boiled, and rested not; yemei oni met me.
28 I went mourning without the sun; I stood up, and I cried out in the kahal.
29 I am an ach to jackals, and a re’a to owls.
30 My ohr (skin) grows black upon me, and my atzmot are burned with fever.
31 My kinnor (harp) also is turned to evel (mourning), and my flute into the voice of them that weep.
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