30 But now they mock(A) me,
men younger than I am,
whose fathers I would have refused to put
with my sheep dogs.
What use to me was the strength of their hands?
Their vigor had left them.
Emaciated from poverty and hunger,
they gnawed the dry land,
the desolate wasteland by night.
They plucked mallow[a](B) among the shrubs,
and the roots of the broom tree were their food.
They were banished from human society;
people shouted at them as if they were thieves.
They are living on the slopes of the wadis,
among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
They bray among the shrubs;
they huddle beneath the thistles.
Foolish(C) men, without even a name.
They were forced to leave the land.

Now I am mocked by their songs;(D)
I have become an object of scorn to them.
10 They despise me and keep their distance from me;(E)
they do not hesitate to spit(F) in my face.
11 Because God has loosened my[b] bowstring and oppressed me,
they have cast off restraint in my presence.(G)
12 The rabble[c] rise up at my right;
they trap[d] my feet
and construct their siege ramp[e] against me.(H)
13 They tear up my path;
they contribute to my destruction,(I)
without anyone to help them.
14 They advance as through a gaping breach;
they keep rolling in through the ruins.(J)
15 Terrors(K) are turned loose against me;
they chase my dignity away like the wind,
and my prosperity has passed by like a cloud.

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Footnotes

  1. 30:4 Or saltwort
  2. 30:11 Alt Hb tradition, LXX, Vg read his
  3. 30:12 Hb obscure
  4. 30:12 Lit stretch out
  5. 30:12 Lit and raise up their destructive paths

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