Job 30
Tree of Life Version
Cry of Great Agony
30 “But now they mock me—those younger than me,
whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
2 Moreover, what use was the strength of their hands to me,
since their vigor has gone from them.
3 Haggard from want and hunger,
they gnaw the parched land,
in former time desolate and waste.
4 In the brush they pluck salt herbs,
and their food was from the root of the broom tree.
5 They were banished from society,
shouted at as if they were thieves,
6 so they were forced to dwell in wadis,
in holes of the earth and among the rocks.
7 They brayed among the bushes
and huddled under the nettles.
8 A senseless and nameless brood,
they were cast out from the land.
9 “So now I have become their taunt song;
I have become a byword to them.
10 They despise me;
they keep their distance from me;
they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
11 Because He has loosened my cord and afflicted me,
they have cast off restraint in my presence
12 On my right the rabble rise up;
they entangle my feet
and build up their destructive paths against me.
13 They break up my path;
they succeed in destroying me without anyone helping them.
14 As through a wide breach they come;
amid the ruins they come rolling in.
15 Terrors are turned on me;
they chase away my honor like the wind,
and like a cloud my deliverance vanishes.
16 “And now my soul is poured out within me;
days of suffering have taken hold of me.
17 Night pierces my bones within me;
my gnawing pains never rest.
18 By great power He seizes my garment;
He binds me like the collar of my tunic.
19 He has cast me into the mud,
and I have become like dust and ashes.
20 “I cry out to You, but You do not answer me;
I stand up, but You only look at me.
21 You have turned on me cruelly;
You attack me with the might of Your hand.
22 You lift me up on the wind
and make me ride on it;
You toss me about in the storm.
23 For I know that you will bring me to death,
to the house appointed for all the living.
24 Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out His hand,
and in his distress cry for help?
25 Have I not wept for the unfortunate?
Was not my soul grieved for the poor?
26 Yet, when I hoped for good, evil came;
when I waited for light, then darkness came.
27 “My heart[a] seethes and never stops;
days of suffering confront me.
28 I walk about blackened, but not by the sun;
I stand in the assembly and cry for help.
29 I have become a brother to jackals,
and a companion to ostriches.
30 My skin has turned black on me;
my bones burn with heat.
31 My harp is for mourning
and my flute for the sound of weeping.
Footnotes
- Job 30:27 Lit. loins.
Job 30
EasyEnglish Bible
Job continues to speak[a]
30 ‘But now it is different.
Men who are younger than I am laugh at me.
I would not even trust their fathers
to take care of my sheep.
2 The work that those old men could do was no help to me.
They no longer were strong.
3 They were weak and thin because they were hungry.
They had to look for food in the desert at night.
They found roots to eat in dry places.
4 They pulled up plants in the desert
as their food.
They burned the roots of bushes
to keep themselves warm.
5 People chased them away from their towns,
as if they were shouting at robbers.
6 They had to live in dry valleys,
among the rocks, or in caves.
7 They cried aloud like animals among the bushes.
They hid together under the thorn bushes.
8 They were foolish people that nobody respected.
People chased them away from their land.
9 But now their sons sing songs that insult me.
They tell jokes about me.[b]
10 They hate me
and they do not come near me.
When they see me,
they spit at my face.
11 God has made me weak and helpless.
People do to me anything that they want to do.
12 From one side, the crowd attacks me.
They make me run away.
They are like an army that builds a road
to come and attack me.
13 They stop me from escaping.
They are ready to destroy me.
They do not need anyone to help them.
14 I cannot stop them when they attack me.
They rush forward to knock me down.
15 So I am always afraid.
My honour has disappeared
as if a strong wind has blown it away.
My riches have also gone,
like a cloud that passes across the sky.
16 Now I know that my life will soon end.
Every day I continue to suffer.
17 At night, my bones are painful.
The pain is always there in my body.
18 God has used his power to take hold of me.
He has held my shirt around my neck.
19 He has thrown me down into the mud.
I am no better than dust and ashes on the ground.
20 I call aloud to you, God,
but you do not answer me.
When I stand to pray,
you only look at me.
21 You have become cruel to me.
You have used your strength to attack me.
22 You take hold of me and you carry me away,
like a strong wind that blows.
You use a storm to destroy me.
23 I know that you are already taking me to my death.
Everyone who lives has to go to that place.
24 When someone is weak and in trouble,
people do not usually try to hurt him.
When someone calls aloud for help,
they do not refuse to help him.
25 When other people were in trouble,
I wept for them.
When I saw poor people
it made me very upset.
26 But when I hoped for good things to happen,
trouble came instead.
When I looked for light to shine on me,
everything became dark.
27 I hurt inside me all the time.
Every day I suffer from pain.
28 Illness has caused my skin to become black.
It is not the sun that has made that happen.
I stand up in the public meeting place
and I call aloud for help.
29 I have become like the jackals and the ostriches.
My sad voice sounds like them.
30 My skin has become black,
and bits of skin fall off.
My body is hot with fever.[c]
31 Now, when I make music with my harp,
I only sing funeral songs.
When I make music with my flute,
I do it for people who are weeping.’
Footnotes
- 30:1 In chapter 30, Job speaks about his troubles. He has no money. He has no friends who can help him. But he does have a lot of pain. And the worst thing is that God will not answer his questions any more (verse 20).
- 30:9 A joke is something funny that people say. They used jokes to laugh at Job.
- 30:30 If someone has a fever, illness has made their body become very hot.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.
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