Job 30

Job continues to speak

1 ‘But now it is different.

Men who are younger than I am laugh at me.

I would not even trust their fathers

to take care of my sheep.

2 The work that those old men could do was no help to me.

They no longer were strong.

3 They were weak and thin because they were hungry.

They had to look for food in the desert at night.

They found roots to eat in dry places.

4 They pulled up plants in the desert

as their food.

They burned the roots of bushes

to keep themselves warm.

5 People chased them away from their towns,

as if they were shouting at robbers.

6 They had to live in dry valleys,

among the rocks, or in caves.

7 They cried aloud like animals among the bushes.

They hid together under the thorn bushes.

8 They were foolish people that nobody respected.

People chased them away from their land.

9 But now their sons sing songs that insult me.

They tell jokes about me.

10 They hate me

and they do not come near me.

When they see me,

they spit at my face.

11 God has made me weak and helpless.

People do to me anything that they want to do.

12 From one side, the crowd attacks me.

They make me run away.

They are like an army that builds a road

to come and attack me.

13 They stop me from escaping.

They are ready to destroy me.

They do not need anyone to help them.

14 I cannot stop them when they attack me.

They rush forward to knock me down.

15 So I am always afraid.

My honour has disappeared

as if a strong wind has blown it away.

My riches have also gone,

like a cloud that passes across the sky.

16 Now I know that my life will soon end.

Every day I continue to suffer.

17 At night, my bones are painful.

The pain is always there in my body.

18 God has used his power to take hold of me.

He has held my shirt around my neck.

19 He has thrown me down into the mud.

I am no better than dust and ashes on the ground.

20 I call aloud to you, God,

but you do not answer me.

When I stand to pray,

you only look at me.

21 You have become cruel to me.

You have used your strength to attack me.

22 You take hold of me and you carry me away,

like a strong wind that blows.

You use a storm to destroy me.

23 I know that you are already taking me to my death.

Everyone who lives has to go to that place.

24 When someone is weak and in trouble,

people do not usually try to hurt him.

When someone calls aloud for help,

they do not refuse to help him.

25 When other people were in trouble,

I wept for them.

When I saw poor people

it made me very upset.

26 But when I hoped for good things to happen,

trouble came instead.

When I looked for light to shine on me,

everything became dark.

27 I hurt inside me all the time.

Every day I suffer from pain.

28 Illness has caused my skin to become black.

It is not the sun that has made that happen.

I stand up in the public meeting place

and I call aloud for help.

29 I have become like the jackals and the ostriches.

My sad voice sounds like them.

30 My skin has become black,

and bits of skin fall off.

My body is hot with fever.

31 Now, when I make music with my harp,

I only sing funeral songs.

When I make music with my flute,

I do it for people who are weeping.’