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Job Continues

Young People Now Insult Me

30 Young people now insult me,
    although their fathers
would have been a disgrace
    to my sheep dogs.
And those who insult me
    are helpless themselves.
They must claw the desert sand
in the dark for something
    to satisfy their hunger.[a]
They gather tasteless shrubs
    for food and firewood,
and they are run out of towns,
    as though they were thieves.
Their only homes are ditches
    or holes between rocks,
where they bray like donkeys
    gathering around shrubs.
And like senseless donkeys
    they are chased away.

Those Worthless Nobodies

Those worthless nobodies
make up jokes and songs
    to disgrace me.
10 They are hateful
    and keep their distance,
even while spitting
    in my direction.
11 God has destroyed me,
and so they don't care
    what they do.[b]
12 Their attacks never stop,
though I am defenseless,
    and my feet are trapped.[c]
13 Without any help,
    they prevent my escape,
destroying me completely[d]
14     and leaving me crushed.
15 Terror has me surrounded;
my reputation and my riches
    have vanished like a cloud.

I Am Sick at Heart

16 I am sick at heart!
    Pain has taken its toll.
17 Night chews on my bones,
    causing endless torment,
18 and God has shrunk my skin,
    choking me to death.[e]
19 I have been thrown in the dirt
    and now am dirt myself.
20 I beg God for help,
    but there is no answer;
and when I stand up,
    he simply stares.
21 God has turned brutal,
22 stirring up a windstorm
    to toss me about.
23 Soon he will send me home
to the world of the dead,
    where we all must go.

24 No one refuses help to others,
    when disaster strikes.[f]
25 I mourned for the poor
    and those who suffered.
26 But when I beg for relief
    and light,
all I receive are disaster
    and darkness.
27 My stomach is tied in knots;
    pain is my daily companion.
28 My days are dark and gloomy
and in the city council
    I stand and cry out,
29 making mournful sounds
    like jackals[g] and owls.
30 My skin is so parched,
that it peels right off,
    and my bones are burning.
31 My only songs are sorrow
    and sadness.

Footnotes

  1. 30.3 hunger: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 3.
  2. 30.11 God … do: Or “They have destroyed me, and so they don't care what else they do.”
  3. 30.12 trapped: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 12.
  4. 30.13 destroying … completely: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
  5. 30.18 death: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 18.
  6. 30.24 strikes: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 24.
  7. 30.29 jackals: Desert animals related to wolves, but smaller.

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