Parallel
Job 30
World English Bible British Edition · Berean Standard Bible
“But now those who are younger than I have me in derision,
“But now they mock me, men younger than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to put with my sheep dogs.
Of what use is the strength of their hands to me,
What use to me was the strength of their hands, since their vigor had left them?
They are gaunt from lack and famine.
Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.
They pluck salt herbs by the bushes.
They plucked mallow among the shrubs, and the roots of the broom tree were their food (note: Or their fuel).
They are driven out from amongst men.
They were banished from among men, shouted at like thieves,
so that they live in frightful valleys,
so that they lived on the slopes of the wadis, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
They are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men.
A senseless and nameless brood, they were driven off the land.
“Now I have become their song.
And now they mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.
They abhor me, they stand aloof from me,
They abhor me and keep far from me; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me;
Because God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they have cast off restraint (note: Hebrew the bridle) in my presence.
On my right hand rise the rabble.
The rabble arises at my right; they lay snares for my feet and build siege ramps against me.
They mar my path.
They tear up my path; they profit from my destruction, with no one to restrain them (note: Or with no one to assist them).
As through a wide breach they come.
They advance as through a wide breach; through the ruins they keep rolling in.
Terrors have turned on me.
Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.
“Now my soul is poured out within me.
And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction grip me.
In the night season my bones are pierced in me,
Night pierces my bones, and my gnawing pains never rest.
My garment is disfigured by great force.
With great force He grasps my garment (note: LXX; Hebrew He becomes like a garment to me or my garment is disfigured); He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.
He has cast me into the mire.
He throws me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.
I cry to you, and you do not answer me.
I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.
You have turned to be cruel to me.
You have ruthlessly turned on me; You oppose me with Your strong hand.
You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it.
You snatch me up into the wind and drive me before it; You toss me about (note: Or You dissolve me) in the storm.
For I know that you will bring me to death,
Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
“However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall?
Yet no one stretches out his hand against a ruined man when he cries for help in his distress.
Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble?
Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has my soul not grieved for the needy?
When I looked for good, then evil came.
But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.
My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest.
I am churning within and cannot rest; days of affliction confront me.
I go mourning without the sun.
I go about blackened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
I am a brother to jackals,
I have become a brother of jackals (note: Or serpents or dragons), a companion of ostriches (note: Literally of daughters of an ostrich or of daughters of an owl).
My skin grows black and peels from me.
My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.
Therefore my harp has turned to mourning,
My harp is tuned to mourning and my flute to the sound of weeping.