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Job's Present State Is Humiliating

¹ "But now those younger than I ^(C1)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 ^(F1)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 ^(F1)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 ^(C1)taunting;
Yes, I am a ^(F1)(C2)byword and a laughingstock to them.

¹⁰ "They hate me, they stand aloof from me,
And do not refrain from ^(C1)spitting in my face.

¹¹ "For God has loosed His bowstring attacking me and He has ^(C1)afflicted and humbled me;
They have cast off ^(C2)the bridle of restraint before me.

¹² "On my right the rabble brood rises;
They ^(C1)push my feet away, and they ^(C2)build up their ways of destruction against me like an advancing army.

¹³ "They ^(C1)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 "^(C1)Terrors are turned upon me;
They chase away my honor and reputation like the wind,
And my prosperity has passed away ^(C2)like a cloud.

¹⁶ "And now ^(C1)my soul is poured out within me;
The days of affliction have seized me.

¹⁷ "^(C1)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 ^(C1)disfigured and blemished;
It binds about me choking me like the collar of my coat.

¹⁹ "God has cast me into the ^(C1)mire a swampland of crisis,
And I have become worthless like dust and ashes.

²⁰ "I ^(C1)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 ^(C1)persecute me.

²² "You ^(C1)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 ^(C1)will bring me to death
And to the ^(C2)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 ^(C1)cry out for help?

²⁵ "Did I not ^(C1)weep for one whose life was hard and filled with trouble?
Was not my heart grieved for ^(C2)the needy?

²⁶ "When I ^(C1)expected good, then came evil to me;
And when I waited for light, ^(C2)then came darkness.

²⁷ "I am seething ^(C1)within and my heart is troubled and cannot rest;
Days of affliction come to meet me.

²⁸ "I go about ^(C1)mourning without comfort my skin blackened by disease, not by the heat of the sun;
I stand up in the assembly and ^(C2)cry out for help.

²⁹ "I am a brother to howling ^(C1)jackals,
And a companion to ostriches which scream dismally.

³⁰ "My ^(C1)skin falls from me in blackened flakes,
And my ^(C2)bones are burned with fever.

³¹ "Therefore my ^(C1)lyre (harp) is used for the sound of mourning,
And my flute for the sound of the voices of those who weep.