Job’s Final Defense Continued

• whose fathers I rejected for setting with the dogs of my sheep and goats.
• 2 Moreover, what use to me is the strength of their hands ?[fn] With them, vigor is destroyed.
• 3 Through want and through barren hunger they are gnawing in the dry region in the darkness of desolation and waste.
• 4 They are picking salt herbs, the leaves of bushes, and the roots of broom trees to warm themselves.
• 5 They were driven out from fellow people; they shout at them as at a[fn] thief,
• 6 so that they dwell[fn] in holes of the ground and in the rocks.
• 7 They bray among the bushes; they are gathered under the nettles.
• 8 A senseless crowd ,[fn] yes, a disreputable brood ,[fn] they were cast out from the land.
• 9 “But now I am their mocking song, and I have become a byword for them.
• 10 They abhor me; they keep aloof from me, and they do not withhold spit from my face
• 11 because he has loosened his bowstring and humbled me, and they have thrown off restraint in my presence .[fn]
• 12 On the right hand the brood rises[fn] up; they put me to flight ,[fn]
• and they build up their siege ramps[fn] against me.
• 13 They destroy my path; they promote my destruction;
• they have no helper.
• 14 As through a wide breach they come; amid a crash they rush on.
• 15 Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind,
• and my hope of deliverance passed by like a cloud.
• 16 “And now my life is poured out onto me; days of misery have taken hold of me.
• 17 At night I am in great pain ;[fn] my pains do not take a rest.
• 18 He seizes my clothing with great power ;[fn] he grasps me by my tunic’s collar.
• 19 He has cast me into the dirt, and I have become like dust[fn] and ashes.
• 20 I cry to you for help, but[fn] you do not answer me; I stand, and you merely look at me.
• 21 You have turned cruel to me; you persecute me with your hand’s might.
• 22 You lift me up to the wind—you make me ride it, and you toss me about in the storm.
• 23 Indeed, I know that you will bring me to death and to the house of assembly for all the living.
• 24 “Surely someone must not send a hand against the needy when, in his misfortune, there is a cry of help for them.
• 25 Have I not wept for the unfortunate ,[fn] and grieved myself over the poor?
• 26 Indeed, I hoped for good, but evil came, and I waited for light, but darkness came.
• 27 My bowels are in turmoil, and they are not still; days of misery come to confront me.
• 28 I go about in mourning garb, but not in sunlight; I stand up in the assembly, and I cry for help.
• 29 I am a companion for the jackals and a companion for ostriches .[fn]
• 30 My skin turns black on me, and my bones burn with heat.
• 31 So[fn] my lyre came to be used for mourning, and my flute for the voice of those who weep.