30:1 “But now those who are younger than I mock me,
Whose fathers I refused to put with the dogs of my flock.
30:2 Indeed, what good was the strength of their hands to me?
Vigor had perished from them.
30:3 From poverty and famine they are gaunt,
They who gnaw at the dry ground by night in waste and desolation,
30:4 Who pluck saltweed by the bushes,
And whose food is the root of the broom shrub.
30:5 They are driven from the community;
They shout against them as against a thief,
30:6 So that they live on the slopes of ravines,
In holes in the ground and among the rocks.
30:7 Among the bushes they ①cry out;
Under the weeds they are gathered together.
▷ ①Or bray
30:8 Worthless ①fellows, even ②those without a name,
They were cast out from the land.
▷ ①Lit sons ②Lit sons
30:9 “And now I have become their ①taunt,
And I have become a ②byword to them.
▷ ①Lit song ②I.e., prob. a word of insult
30:10 They loathe me and stand aloof from me,
And they do not ①refrain from spitting in my face.
▷ ①Lit withhold spit from my face
30:11 Because He has undone ①my ②bowstring and afflicted me,
They have cast off the bridle before me.
▷ ①Some mss His ②Or cord
30:12 On the right hand their ①mob arises;
They push aside my feet and pile up their ways of destruction against me.
▷ ①Or youth arise
30:13 They break up my path,
They promote my destruction;
No one restrains them.
30:14 As through a wide gap they come,
①Amid the storm they roll on.
▷ ①Lit Under
30:15 Sudden terrors are turned upon me;
They chase away my dignity like the wind,
And my ①prosperity has passed away like a cloud.
▷ ①Or welfare
30:16 “And now my soul is poured out ①within me;
Days of misery have seized me.
▷ ①Lit upon
30:17 At night it pierces my bones ①within me,
And my gnawing pains do not rest.
▷ ①Lit from upon
30:18 By a great force my garment is distorted;
It ties me up like the collar of my coat.
30:19 He has thrown me into the mire,
And I have become like dust and ashes.
30:20 I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer me;
I stand up, and You turn Your attention against me.
30:21 You have ①become cruel to me;
With the strength of Your hand You persecute me.
▷ ①Lit turned to be
30:22 You lift me up to the wind and make me ride it;
And You dissolve me in a storm.
30:23 For I know that You will bring me to death,
And to the house of meeting for all living.
30:24 “Yet does one in a heap of ruins not reach out with his hand,
Or in his disaster does he not cry out for help?
30:25 Have I not wept for the ①one whose life is hard?
Was my soul not grieved for the needy?
▷ ①Lit hard of day
30:26 When I expected good, evil came;
When I waited for light, darkness came.
30:27 ①I am seething within and cannot rest;
Days of misery confront me.
▷ ①Lit My inward parts are boiling
30:28 I go about ①mourning without comfort;
I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help.
▷ ①Or blackened, but not by the heat of the sun
30:29 I have become a brother to jackals,
And a companion of ostriches.
30:30 My skin turns black ①on me,
And my bones burn with ②fever.
▷ ①Lit from upon ②Lit heat
30:31 Therefore my harp ①is turned to mourning,
And my flute to the sound of those who weep.
▷ ①Lit becomes