Job 30:3-31 ▼

3 Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.

4 They plucked mallow among the shrubs, and the roots of the broom tree were their food (their fuel).

5 They were banished from among men, shouted at like thieves,

6 so that they lived on the slopes of the wadis, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.

7 They cried out among the shrubs and huddled beneath the nettles.

8 A senseless and nameless brood, they were driven off the land.

9 And now they mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.

10 They abhor me and keep far from me; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

11 Because God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they have cast off restraint \the bridle/ in my presence.

12 The rabble arises at my right; they lay snares for my feet and build siege ramps against me.

13 They tear up my path; they profit from my destruction, with no one to restrain them (with no one to assist them).

14 They advance as through a wide breach; through the ruins they keep rolling in.

15 Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind {ruach}, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.

16 And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction grip me.

17 Night pierces my bones, and my gnawing pains never rest.

18 With great force He grasps my garment [He becomes like a garment to me]; He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.

19 He throws me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.

20 I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.

21 You have ruthlessly turned on me; You oppose me with Your strong hand.

22 You snatch me up into the wind {ruach} and drive me before it; You toss me about (You dissolve me) in the storm.

23 Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.

24 Yet no one stretches out his hand against a ruined man when he cries for help in his distress.

25 Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has my soul not grieved for the needy?

26 But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.

27 I am churning within and cannot rest; days of affliction confront me.

28 I go about blackened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

29 I have become a brother of jackals (serpents), a companion of ostriches \of daughters of an ostrich/.

30 My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.

31 My harp is tuned to mourning and my flute to the sound of weeping.