Job’s Present State Is Humiliating
1 “But now those younger than I mock and laugh at me, Whose fathers I refused to put with the sheepdogs of my flock.
2 “Indeed, how could the strength of their hands profit me? Vigor had perished from them.
3 “They are gaunt with want and famine; They gnaw the dry and barren ground by night in [the gloom of] waste and desolation.
4 “They pluck [and eat] saltwort (mallows) among the bushes, And their food is the root of the broom shrub.
5 “They are driven from the community; They shout after them as after a thief.
6 “They must dwell on the slopes of wadis And in holes in the ground and in rocks.
7 “Among the bushes they cry out [like wild animals]; Beneath the prickly scrub they gather and huddle together.
8 “They are the sons of [worthless and nameless] fools, They have been driven out of the land.
9 “And now I have become [the subject of] their taunting; Yes, I am a byword and a laughingstock to them.
10 “They hate me, they stand aloof from me, And do not refrain from spitting in my face.
11 “For God has loosed His bowstring [attacking me] and [He has] afflicted and humbled me; They have cast off the bridle [of restraint] before me.
12 “On my right the [rabble] brood rises; They push my feet away, and they build up their ways of destruction against me [like an advancing army].
13 “They break up and clutter my path [upsetting my plans], They profit from my destruction; No one restrains them.
14 “As through a wide breach they come, Amid the crash [of falling walls] they roll on [over me].
15 “Terrors are turned upon me; They chase away my honor and reputation like the wind, And my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.
16 “And now my soul is poured out within me; The days of affliction have seized me.
17 “My bones are pierced [with aching] in the night season, And the pains that gnaw me take no rest.
18 “By the great force [of my disease] my garment (skin) is disfigured and blemished; It binds about me [choking me] like the collar of my coat.
19 “God has cast me into the mire [a swampland of crisis], And I have become [worthless] like dust and ashes.
20 “I cry to You for help, [Lord,] but You do not answer me; I stand up, but You [only] gaze [indifferently] at me.
21 “You have become harsh and cruel to me; With the might of Your hand You [keep me alive only to] persecute me.
22 “You lift me up on the wind and cause me to ride [upon it]; And You toss me about in the tempest and dissolve me in the storm.
23 “For I know that You will bring me to death And to the house of meeting [appointed] for all the living.
24 “However, does not one falling in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand? Or in his disaster [will he not] therefore cry out for help?
25 “Did I not weep for one whose life was hard and filled with trouble? Was not my heart grieved for the needy?
26 “When I expected good, then came evil [to me]; And when I waited for light, then came darkness.
27 “I am seething within and my heart is troubled and cannot rest; Days of affliction come to meet me.
28 “I go about mourning without comfort [my skin blackened by disease, not by the heat of the sun]; I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help.
29 “I am a brother to [howling] jackals, And a companion to ostriches [which scream dismally].
30 “My skin falls from me in blackened flakes, And my bones are burned with fever.
31 “Therefore my lyre (harp) is used for [the sound of] mourning, And my flute for the [sound of the] voices of those who weep.