Chapters
Job (42 chapters)
Job 30
1
But now people much younger than me laugh at me; people whose fathers I would not put to work with my sheepdogs.
2
They are too weak to be any use to me; they're all worn-out.
3
Thin through hunger and want, they try to eat the dry ground in the dark, desolate wilderness.
4
There they pick desert herbs and the leaves of bushes, and eat the roots of broom trees.
5
They were driven out of the community.
6
People shouted after them as if they were thieves. They have to live in dangerous ravines, in caves and among the rocks.
7
They shout out like animals among the bushes; they huddle together in the weeds for shelter.
8
They are foolish, nameless people that have been driven from the land.
9
Yet now they mock me in their songs; I have become a joke to them!
10
They despise and shun me; they don't hesitate to spit in my face.
11
God has made my bowstring loose and humbled me.
1
Notes
+
In other words, God has rendered Job powerless.
12
The rabble rise up against me, they send me running; like a city under siege they devise ways to destroy me.
2
Notes
+
The Hebrew is unclear.
+
The phrase alludes to the building of ramps to attack a city under siege.
13
They cut off my way of escape; they bring about my downfall and do this without anyone's help.
14
They come in through a wide breach; they rush in as the wall comes tumbling down.
1
Notes
+
The illustration of a besieged city continues with the image of invaders entering through a city wall that has been brought down.
15
Terrors overcome me; my honor is blown away by the wind; my salvation vanishes like a cloud.
16
And now my life is ebbing away; every day despair grips me.
1
Notes
+
Literally, “days of affliction.”
17
At night my bones are in agony; the pain gnaws at me and never stops.
18
God grabs me roughly by my clothes; he pulls me by the collar of my shirt.
19
He has thrown me in the mud; he has humbled me like dust and ashes.
20
God, I cry to you but you don't answer; I stand before you, but you don't even notice me.
21
You have turned cruel to me; you use your power to make me suffer.
22
You pick me up and blow me along in the wind; tossing me about in the whirlwind.
23
I know you're taking me to my death, to the place where all the living go.
24
Who would want to kick a man when he is down, when they cry for help in their time of trouble?
1
Notes
+
More literally, “Surely no one who raise their hand against the needy.” Or “Yet doesn't someone in a heap of ruins reach out their hand?” The Hebrew is unclear.
25
Didn't I weep for those having hard times? Didn't I grieve at what the poor suffered?
26
But when I looked for good, only evil came, and when I waited for the light, all that came was darkness.
27
Inside I am in turmoil, it never stops; I face days of despair.
1
Notes
+
Literally, “My intestines are boiling.”
28
I am so depressed; seeing the sun doesn't help. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
1
Notes
+
Literally, “I am blackened, but not by the sun.” This may alternatively refer to some skin disease.
29
I am like a brother to the jackals, a companion to owls.
1
Notes
+
Or ostriches. Some believe this expands on the cries mentioned in the preceding verse—like the mournful calls of animals and birds.
30
My skin turns black on me; and my bones burn within me.
31
My lyre only plays sad songs, and my pipe is the voice of those who weep.