Job 30:1-15
Legacy Standard Bible
30 “But now those younger than I (A)laugh at me,
Whose fathers I rejected even to put with the dogs of my flock.
2 Indeed, what good was the strength of their hands to me?
Vigor had perished from them.
3 From want and famine they are gaunt,
Who gnaw the dry ground by night in destruction and desolation,
4 Who pluck [a]mallow by the bushes,
And whose food is the root of the broom tree.
5 They are driven from the community;
They shout against them as against a thief,
6 So that they dwell in the slopes of the [b]valleys,
In holes of the dust and of the rocks.
7 Among the bushes they [c]cry out;
Under the nettles they are gathered together.
8 [d]Wicked fools, even [e]those without a name,
They were scourged from the land.
9 “And now I have become their mocking (B)song;
I have even become a (C)taunting word to them.
10 They abhor me and keep a distance from me,
And they do not [f]hold back from (D)spitting at my face.
11 Because [g]He has loosed [h]His [i]bowstring and (E)afflicted me,
They have thrust aside (F)their bridle before me.
12 On the right hand their [j]brood arises;
They (G)thrust aside my feet (H)and build up against me their ways to disaster.
13 They (I)break up my path;
They profit [k]from my destruction;
They have no helper.
14 As through a wide breach they come,
[l]Amid the storm they roll on.
15 (J)Terrors are turned against me;
They pursue my nobility as the wind,
And my hope for salvation has passed away (K)like a cloud.
Job 30:1-15
International Standard Version
Job Describes His Current Status in Life
30 “But now they mock me;
men who are far younger than I,
whose fathers I would have hated
to entrust with my own sheep dogs.
2 Furthermore, what could I have gained
from men whose strength is gone?
3 Unproductive due to poverty[a] and hunger,
they could only scratch in parched soil,
devastated and desolated.
4 “They would pluck off herbs from salt marshes to eat;
and roots of the broom shrub[b] for food.
5 Driven away from human company,
they were shouted at as though they were thieves.
6 They lived in the most dangerous of ravines,
in holes in the ground, and among rocks.
7 They bray like donkeys[c] among the bushes
and huddle together under the desert weeds.
8 Sons of fools and of uncertain reputation,[d]
they have been driven from the land by scourging.”
Job Presents the Actions of the Mockers
9 “Now, I’ve become the object of their mocking melodies;[e]
I’m nothing but a fool’s proverb to them!
10 They abhor me—they keep their distance from me;
but they don’t refrain from spitting at the sight of me.
11 But God[f] has loosened his cord and afflicted me;
so they’ve cast off all restraints in my presence.
12 “A wretched crowd ambushes me to my right;
they trip my feet;
they build up their path of calamity for me.
13 They tear up my pathways;
they profit from my destruction,
and they need no help to do this!
14 They come like those who breach through a wall;
as everything crashes around me they’ll roll on and on!
15 My greatest fears have overcome me;
my honor is assaulted as though by a wind storm;
my prosperity evaporates like a morning cloud.”
Footnotes
- Job 30:3 Or want
- Job 30:4 I.e. a desert bush native to Israel whose bitter roots could be harvested by the destitute and eaten when food was scarce
- Job 30:7 The Heb. lacks like donkeys
- Job 30:8 Or and without a name
- Job 30:9 Lit. their neginnoth; i.e. derogatory songs composed to mock Job
- Job 30:11 Lit. he
Legacy Standard Bible Copyright ©2021 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org For Permission to Quote Information visit https://www.LSBible.org.
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.
