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.
What could I gain from the strength of their hands,
    (C)men whose (D)vigor is gone?
Through want and hard hunger
    they (E)gnaw (F)the dry ground by night in (G)waste and desolation;
they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes,
    and the roots of the broom tree for their food.[a]
(H)They are driven out from human company;
    they shout after them as after a thief.
In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell,
    in holes of the earth and of (I)the rocks.
Among the bushes they (J)bray;
    under (K)the nettles they huddle together.
A senseless, a nameless brood,
    they have been whipped out of the land.

“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.
14 As through a wide (S)breach they come;
    amid the crash they roll on.
15 (T)Terrors are turned upon me;
    my honor is pursued as by the wind,
    and my prosperity has passed away like (U)a cloud.

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Footnotes

  1. Job 30:4 Or warmth
  2. Job 30:11 Hebrew the bridle

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.
A lot of good they are to me—
    those worn-out wretches!
They are gaunt from poverty and hunger.
    They claw the dry ground in desolate wastelands.
They pluck wild greens from among the bushes
    and eat from the roots of broom trees.
They are driven from human society,
    and people shout at them as if they were thieves.
So now they live in frightening ravines,
    in caves and among the rocks.
They sound like animals howling among the bushes,
    huddled together beneath the nettles.
They are nameless fools,
    outcasts from society.

“And now they mock me with vulgar songs!
    They taunt me!
10 They despise me and won’t come near me,
    except to spit in my face.
11 For God has cut my bowstring.
    He has humbled me,
    so they have thrown off all restraint.
12 These outcasts oppose me to my face.
    They send me sprawling
    and lay traps in my path.
13 They 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.

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