Job 30

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 And now I am the laughing-stock of people who are younger than I am and whose parents I wouldhave disdained to put with the dogs guarding my flock.	1 But now, those younger in years scorn me, whose fathers I would not have seen fit to place with the dogs of my flock,
2 And what use to me was the strength of their hands? - enfeebled as they were,	2 the strength of whose hands was nothing to me, and they were considered unworthy of life itself.
3 worn out by want and hunger, for they used to gnaw the roots of the thirsty ground -- that place ofgloom, ruin and desolation-	3 They were barren from poverty and hunger; they gnawed in solitude, layered with misfortune and misery.
4 they used to pick saltwort among the scrub, making their meals off roots of broom.	4 And they chewed grass and the bark from trees, and the root of junipers was their food.
5 Outlawed from human company, which raised hue and cry against them, as against thieves,	5 They took these things from the steep valleys, and when they discovered one of these things, they rushed to the others with a cry.
6 they made their homes in the sides of ravines, in holes in the earth or in clefts of rock.	6 They lived in the parched desert and in caves underground or above the rocks.
7 You could hear them braying from the bushes as they huddled together in the thistles.	7 They rejoiced among these kinds of things, and they considered it delightful to be under thorns.
8 Children of scoundrels, worse, nameless people, the very outcasts of society!	8 These are the sons of foolish and base men, not even paying any attention to the land.
9 And these are the ones who now make up songs about me and use me as a byword!	9 Now I become their song, and I have been made into their proverb.
10 Fil ed with disgust, they keep their distance, on seeing me, they spit without restraint.	10 They loathe me, and so they flee far from me, and they are not reluctant to spit in my face.
11 And since God has loosened my bow-string and afflicted me, they too throw off the bridle in mypresence.	11 For he has opened his quiver and has afflicted me, and he has placed a bridle in my mouth.
12 Their brats surge forward on my right, to see when I am having a little peace, and advance on mewith threatening strides.	12 Immediately, upon rising, my calamities rise up to the right. They have overturned my feet and have pressed me down along their way like waves.
13 They cut off all means of escape seizing the chance to destroy me, and no one stops them.	13 They have diverted my journeys; they have waited to ambush me, and they have prevailed, and there was no one who might bring help.
14 They move in, as if through a wide breach, and I go tumbling beneath the rubble.	14 They have rushed upon me, as when a wall is broken or a gate opened, and they have been pulled down into my miseries.
15 Terror rounds on me, my confidence is dispersed as though by the wind, my hope of safety vanisheslike a cloud.	15 I have been reduced to nothing. You have taken away my desire like a wind, and my health has passed by like a cloud.
16 And now the life in me trickles away, days of grief have gripped me.	16 But now my soul withers within myself, and the days of affliction take hold of me.
17 At night-time sickness saps my bones I am gnawed by wounds that never sleep.	17 At night, my bone is pierced with sorrows, and those who feed on me, do not sleep.
18 Violently, he has caught me by my clothes, has gripped me by the col ar of my coat.	18 By the sheer number of them my clothing is worn away, and they have closed in on me like the collar of my coat.
19 He has thrown me into the mud; I am no more than dust and ashes.	19 I have been treated like dirt, and I have been turned into embers and ashes.
20 I cry to you, and you give me no answer; I stand before you, but you take no notice.	20 I cry to you, and you do not heed me. I stand up, and you do not look back at me.
21 You have grown cruel to me, and your strong hand torments me unmerciful y.	21 You have changed me into hardness, and, with the hardness of your hand, you oppose me.
22 You carry me away astride the wind and blow me to pieces in a tempest.	22 You have lifted me up, and, placing me as if on the wind, you have thrown me down powerfully.
23 Yes, I know that you are taking me towards death, to the common meeting-place of al the living.	23 I know that you will hand me over to death, where a home has been established for all the living.
24 Yet have I ever laid a hand on the poor when they cried out for justice in calamity?	24 Truly, then, you do not extend your hand in order to consume them, and if they fall down, you will save them.
25 Have I not wept for those whose life is hard, felt pity for the penniless?	25 Once, I wept over him who was afflicted, and my soul had compassion on the poor.
26 I hoped for happiness, but sorrow came; I looked for light, but there was darkness.	26 I expected good things, but evil things have come to me. I stood ready for light, yet darkness burst forth.
27 My stomach seethes, is never stil , days of suffering have struck me.	27 My insides have seethed, without any rest, for the days of affliction have prevented it.
28 Sombre I go, yet no one comforts me, and if I rise in the council, I rise to weep.	28 I went forth mourning, without anger, and rising up, I cried out in confusion.
29 I have become brother to the jackal and companion to the ostrich.	29 I was the brother of snakes, and the companion of ostriches.
30 My skin has turned black on me, my bones are burnt with fever.	30 My skin has become blackened over me, and my bones have dried up because of the heat.
31 My harp is tuned to dirges, my pipe to the voice of mourners.	31 My harp has been turned into mourning, and my pipes have been turned into a voice of weeping.