Job’s Final Defense Continued

• whose fathers I rejected for setting with the dogs of my sheep and goats.
• 2 [fn] With them, vigor is destroyed.
• 3  they are gnawing in the dry region in the darkness of desolation and waste.
• 4  and the roots of broom trees to warm themselves.
• 5  they shout at them as at a[fn] thief,
• 6 [fn] in holes of the ground and in the rocks.
• 7 the bushes; they are gathered under the nettles.
• 8 [fn] yes, [fn] they were cast out from the land.
• 9  and I have become a byword for them.
• 10  and they do not withhold spit from my face
• 11  and they have thrown off restraint[fn]
• 12 the right hand the brood rises[fn] up; [fn]
• and they build up their[fn] against me.
• 13  they promote my destruction;
• they have no helper.
• 14 through a wide breach they come; amid a crash they rush on.
• 15  my honor is pursued as by the wind,
• and my hope of deliverance passed by like a cloud.
• 16  days of misery have taken hold of me.
• 17 [fn] my pains do not take a rest.
• 18 [fn] he grasps me by my tunic’s collar.
• 19  and I have become like dust[fn] and ashes.
• 20 [fn] you do not answer me; I stand, and you merely look at me.
• 21  you persecute me with your hand’s might.
• 22 the wind—you make me ride it, and you toss me about in the storm.
• 23 that you will bring me to death and to the house of assembly for all the living.
• 24 the needy when, in his misfortune, there is a cry of help for them.
• 25 [fn] and grieved myself over the poor?
• 26  and I waited for light, but darkness came.
• 27  days of misery come to confront me.
• 28 about in mourning garb, but not in sunlight; I stand up in the assembly, and I cry for help.
• 29 the jackals and a companion for[fn]
• 30  and my bones burn with heat.
• 31 [fn] my lyre came to be used for mourning, and my flute for the voice of those who weep.