Job 30 Job describes the misery into which he fell

 Job 30

Job describes the misery into which he fell

1 But now those younger than I have laughed at me, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.

2 What good is the strength of their hands? They have wasted away from old age.

3 They have grown feeble from want and famine; they have withdrawn into the dry, dark, desolate, and desert places.

4 They have gathered mallows among the bushes, and their food has been the roots of the broom.

5 They have been driven out from among men; they have been shouted at as against a thief;

6 They have lived in the ravines of the valleys, and in the caves of the earth and of the rocks.

7 They have roared among the bushes, and have huddled together under the nettles.

8 They were the children of fools, and the children of a nameless people, and they were driven out of the land.

9 But now I am a song, and I am their byword.

10 They abhor me, and flee far from me, and do not refrain from spitting in my face.

11 For God has loosed his cord, and oppressed me: therefore they have shaken off the bridle before my face.

12 The young men stand up on the right hand; they push my feet, and prepare their ways of destruction against me.

13 They have broken up my way; they have brought about my misery, a nation without a helper.

14 They come against me as through a great breach, and they roll about in the midst of the desolation.

15 Terrors have come upon me; they pursue my glory like a wind, and my goodness has passed away like a cloud.

16 And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold of me.

17 In the night my bones are pierced, and the evil that eats away at me does not rest.

18 Because of the great force of my evil my garment has been changed, which girds me like the vesture of my robe.

19 He has cast me into the mire, and I am like dust and ashes.

20 I cry to you, but you do not answer; I stand, but you do not regard me.

21 You have become cruel to me; with the strength of your hand you resist me violently.

22 You lift me up upon the wind, you make me ride upon it, and you melt my being.

23 For I know that you will bring me to the mountain, to the house of assembly for all living. 

24 But will he not stretch out his hand to a heap of earth, if there be a cry upon it in his distress?

25 Have I not wept over him that was afflicted? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

26 Yet when I looked for good, behold, evil came upon me; and when I looked for light, darkness came.

27 My bowels seethe, and are not quiet; the days of affliction have overtaken me.

28 I walk in darkness, but not in the sun; when I stand in the congregation, I cry for help.

29 I have become a brother to dragons, a companion to ostriches.

30 My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.

31 Therefore my harp is turned into lamentation, and my organ into the voice of them that mourn.