| 30:1 | "But now they mock me, men younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
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| 30:2 | Of what use was the strength of their hands to me, since their vigor had gone from them?
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| 30:3 | Haggard from want and hunger, they roamed the parched land in desolate wastelands at night.
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| 30:4 | In the brush they gathered salt herbs, and their food was the root of the broom tree.
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| 30:5 | They were banished from their fellow men, shouted at as if they were thieves.
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| 30:6 | They were forced to live in the dry stream beds, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
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| 30:7 | They brayed among the bushes and huddled in the undergrowth.
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| 30:8 | A base and nameless brood, they were driven out of the land.
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| 30:9 | "And now their sons mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.
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| 30:10 | They detest me and keep their distance; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
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| 30:11 | Now that God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they throw off restraint in my presence.
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| 30:12 | On my right the tribe attacks; they lay snares for my feet, they build their siege ramps against me.
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| 30:13 | They break up my road; they succeed in destroying me-- without anyone's helping them.
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| 30:14 | They advance as through a gaping breach; amid the ruins they come rolling in.
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| 30:15 | Terrors overwhelm me; my dignity is driven away as by the wind, my safety vanishes like a cloud.
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| 30:16 | "And now my life ebbs away; days of suffering grip me.
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| 30:17 | Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never rest.
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| 30:18 | In his great power [God] becomes like clothing to me; he binds me like the neck of my garment.
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| 30:19 | He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes.
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| 30:20 | "I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me.
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| 30:21 | You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me.
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| 30:22 | You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm.
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| 30:23 | I know you will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
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| 30:24 | "Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man when he cries for help in his distress.
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| 30:25 | Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor?
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| 30:26 | Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness.
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| 30:27 | The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me.
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| 30:28 | I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
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| 30:29 | I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of owls.
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| 30:30 | My skin grows black and peels; my body burns with fever.
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| 30:31 | My harp is tuned to mourning, and my flute to the sound of wailing.
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| 31:1 | "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.
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| 31:2 | For what is man's lot from God above, his heritage from the Almighty on high?
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| 31:3 | Is it not ruin for the wicked, disaster for those who do wrong?
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| 31:4 | Does he not see my ways and count my every step?
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| 31:5 | "If I have walked in falsehood or my foot has hurried after deceit--
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| 31:6 | let God weigh me in honest scales and he will know that I am blameless--
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| 31:7 | if my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has been led by my eyes, or if my hands have been defiled,
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| 31:8 | then may others eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.
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| 31:9 | "If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbor's door,
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| 31:10 | then may my wife grind another man's grain, and may other men sleep with her.
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| 31:11 | For that would have been shameful, a sin to be judged.
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| 31:12 | It is a fire that burns to Destruction; it would have uprooted my harvest.
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| 31:13 | "If I have denied justice to my menservants and maidservants when they had a grievance against me,
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| 31:14 | what will I do when God confronts me? What will I answer when called to account?
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| 31:15 | Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?
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| 31:16 | "If I have denied the desires of the poor or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,
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| 31:17 | if I have kept my bread to myself, not sharing it with the fatherless--
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| 31:18 | but from my youth I reared him as would a father, and from my birth I guided the widow--
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| 31:19 | if I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing, or a needy man without a garment,
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| 31:20 | and his heart did not bless me for warming him with the fleece from my sheep,
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| 31:21 | if I have raised my hand against the fatherless, knowing that I had influence in court,
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| 31:22 | then let my arm fall from the shoulder, let it be broken off at the joint.
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| 31:23 | For I dreaded destruction from God, and for fear of his splendor I could not do such things.
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| 31:24 | "If I have put my trust in gold or said to pure gold, "You are my security,"
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| 31:25 | if I have rejoiced over my great wealth, the fortune my hands had gained,
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| 31:26 | if I have regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor,
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| 31:27 | so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand offered them a kiss of homage,
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| 31:28 | then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high.
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| 31:29 | "If I have rejoiced at my enemy's misfortune or gloated over the trouble that came to him--
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| 31:30 | I have not allowed my mouth to sin by invoking a curse against his life--
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| 31:31 | if the men of my household have never said, "Who has not had his fill of Job's meat?"--
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| 31:32 | but no stranger had to spend the night in the street, for my door was always open to the traveler--
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| 31:33 | if I have concealed my sin as men do, by hiding my guilt in my heart
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| 31:34 | because I so feared the crowd and so dreaded the contempt of the clans that I kept silent and would not go outside
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| 31:35 | ("Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defense-- let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing.
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| 31:36 | Surely I would wear it on my shoulder, I would put it on like a crown.
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| 31:37 | I would give him an account of my every step; like a prince I would approach him.)--
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| 31:38 | "if my land cries out against me and all its furrows are wet with tears,
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| 31:39 | if I have devoured its yield without payment or broken the spirit of its tenants,
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| 31:40 | then let briers come up instead of wheat and weeds instead of barley." The words of Job are ended.
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