Chapter 30
1And now those younger than I laugh at me, those whose fathers I rejected from being set with the dogs of my flock.
2Also, why is the strength of their hands to me? Their vigor has perished upon them.
3Solitary in poverty and in famine, they gnaw the dryness of last night amid devastation and desolation.
4They pluck mallow upon the bush and the root of broom for their food.
5They are driven out from the midst; they shout upon them like a thief.
6They dwell in the dreadful torrent, in holes of dust and rocks.
7Between the bushes they bray; they attach themselves under the nettle.
8Sons of a fool and sons without a name, they are whipped from the land.
9And now I have become their music, and I have become a speech to them.
10They abhor me and remove themselves from me, and they do not withhold spittle from my face.
11For they open my cord and afflict me, and they send a bridle away from my face.
12Upon the right a brood arises; they send my feet and build upon me the ways of their calamity.
13They break my path for my desire; they gain nothing and there is no helper for them.
14Like a wide breach they come; under devastation they roll.
15Terrors are overturned upon me; they pursue my honor like the spirit, and my salvation passes like a cloud.
16And now my soul pours itself out upon me; the days of affliction grasp me.
17Night digs at my bones within me, and my gnawers do not lie down.
18With much strength he searches my clothing; like the lip of my tunic he girds me.
19He casts me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.
20I cry to you and you do not answer me; I stand and you consider me.
21You turn to be cruel to me; with the strength of your hand you hate me.
22You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it and dissolve me in the storm.
23For I know that you return me to death and to the house of meeting for all the living.
24Surely he does not send a hand into ruins; if into his disaster, then there is a cry.
25If I have not wept for the severe day, my soul has been grieved for the needy.
26For I awaited good, but evil came; I waited for light, but darkness came.
27My belly boils and is not stationary; the days of affliction meet me.
28I go about darkened without heat; I arise in the assembly and cry.
29I have become a brother to jackals and a neighbor to the daughters of the ostrich.
30My skin is black upon me, and my bone is scorched from drought.
31My lyre has become mourning, and my pipe has become the voice of those who weep.
Chapter 31
1I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze upon a virgin?
2And what is the portion of God from above, and the inheritance of the Almighty from the heights?
3Is not calamity for the unjust, and misfortune for the workers of evil?
4Does he not see my ways, and does he not count all my steps?
5If I walked with vanity and my foot hastened upon deceit,
6let him weigh me in balances of righteousness, and let God know my integrity.
7If my step turns aside from the way and my heart goes after my eyes, and a blemish cleaves in my palm,
8I sow and another eats, and my offspring are uprooted.
9If my heart was enticed by a woman and I lay in wait at the entrance of my neighbor,
10let another grind my wife, and let others bow down upon her.
11For it is wickedness, and it is iniquity for judges.