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30 “But now those younger than I (A)laugh at me,
Whose fathers I rejected even to put with the dogs of my flock.
Indeed, what good was the strength of their hands to me?
Vigor had perished from them.
From want and famine they are gaunt,
Who gnaw the dry ground by night in destruction and desolation,
Who pluck [a]mallow by the bushes,
And whose food is the root of the broom tree.
They are driven from the community;
They shout against them as against a thief,
So that they dwell in the slopes of the [b]valleys,
In holes of the dust and of the rocks.
Among the bushes they [c]cry out;
Under the nettles they are gathered together.
[d]Wicked fools, even [e]those without a name,
They were scourged from the land.

“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.

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Footnotes

  1. Job 30:4 Plant of the salt marshes
  2. Job 30:6 Or wadis
  3. Job 30:7 Or bray
  4. Job 30:8 Lit Sons of fools
  5. Job 30:8 Lit sons
  6. Job 30:10 Lit withhold spit from my face
  7. Job 30:11 Or they
  8. Job 30:11 Some mss my
  9. Job 30:11 Or cord
  10. Job 30:12 Possibly sprout, offspring
  11. Job 30:13 Lit for
  12. Job 30:14 Lit Under

30 “But now they mock me,(A)
    men younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
    to put with my sheep dogs.(B)
Of what use was the strength of their hands to me,
    since their vigor had gone from them?
Haggard from want and hunger,
    they roamed[a] the parched land(C)
    in desolate wastelands(D) at night.(E)
In the brush they gathered salt herbs,(F)
    and their food[b] was the root of the broom bush.(G)
They were banished from human society,
    shouted at as if they were thieves.
They were forced to live in the dry stream beds,
    among the rocks and in holes in the ground.(H)
They brayed(I) among the bushes(J)
    and huddled in the undergrowth.
A base and nameless brood,(K)
    they were driven out of the land.(L)

“And now those young men mock me(M) in song;(N)
    I have become a byword(O) among them.
10 They detest me(P) and keep their distance;
    they do not hesitate to spit in my face.(Q)
11 Now that God has unstrung my bow(R) and afflicted me,(S)
    they throw off restraint(T) in my presence.
12 On my right(U) the tribe[c] attacks;
    they lay snares(V) for my feet,(W)
    they build their siege ramps against me.(X)
13 They break up my road;(Y)
    they succeed in destroying me.(Z)
    ‘No one can help him,’ they say.
14 They advance as through a gaping breach;(AA)
    amid the ruins they come rolling in.
15 Terrors(AB) overwhelm me;(AC)
    my dignity is driven away as by the wind,
    my safety vanishes like a cloud.(AD)

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Footnotes

  1. Job 30:3 Or gnawed
  2. Job 30:4 Or fuel
  3. Job 30:12 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.