Add parallel Print Page Options

30 “But now those who are younger than I have me in derision,
    whose fathers I considered unworthy to put with my sheep dogs.
Of what use is the strength of their hands to me,
    men in whom ripe age has perished?
They are gaunt from lack and famine.
    They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.
They pluck salt herbs by the bushes.
    The roots of the broom tree are their food.
They are driven out from among men.
    They cry after them as after a thief;
So that they dwell in frightful valleys,
    and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
They bray among the bushes.
    They are gathered together under the nettles.
They are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men.
    They were flogged out of the land.

“Now I have become their song.
    Yes, I am a byword to them.
10 They abhor me, they stand aloof from me,
    and don’t hesitate to spit in my face.
11 For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me;
    and they have thrown off restraint before me.
12 On my right hand rise the rabble.
    They thrust aside my feet,
    They cast up against me their ways of destruction.
13 They mar my path.
    They promote my destruction
    without anyone’s help.
14 As through a wide breach they come.
    They roll themselves in amid the ruin.
15 Terrors have turned on me.
    They chase my honor as the wind.
    My welfare has passed away as a cloud.

Read full chapter

30 “But now they make sport of me,
    those who are younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
    to set with the dogs of my flock.(A)
What could I gain from the strength of their hands?
    All their vigor is gone.
Through want and hard hunger
    they gnaw the dry and desolate ground;
they pick mallow and the leaves of bushes
    and to warm themselves the roots of broom.
They are driven out from society;
    people shout after them as after a thief.
In the gullies of wadis they must live,
    in holes in the ground and in the rocks.
Among the bushes they bray;
    under the nettles they huddle together.
A senseless, disreputable brood,
    they have been whipped out of the land.

“And now they mock me in song;
    I am a byword to them.(B)
10 They abhor me; they keep aloof from me;
    they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.(C)
11 Because God has loosed my bowstring and humbled me,
    they have cast off restraint in my presence.(D)
12 On my right hand the rabble rise up;
    they send me sprawling
    and build roads for my ruin.(E)
13 They break up my path;
    they promote my calamity;
    no one restrains[a] them.
14 As through a wide breach they come;
    amid the crash they roll on.
15 Terrors are turned upon me;
    my honor is pursued as by the wind,
    and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.(F)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 30.13 Cn: Heb helps