Job’s Prosperity Becomes Calamity

Terrors are turned loose against me;

they drive away my dignity as by the wind,

and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.

16 

And now my soul is poured out within me;

days of affliction grip me.

17 

Night pierces my bones,

and my gnawing pains never rest.

18 

With great force He grasps my garment;[fn]

He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.

19 

He throws me into the mud,

and I have become like dust and ashes.

20 

I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer;

when I stand up, You merely look at me.

21 

You have ruthlessly turned on me;

You oppose me with Your strong hand.

22 

You snatch me up into the wind

and drive me [before it];

You toss me about[fn] in the storm.

23 

Yes, I know that You will bring me down [to] death,

to the place appointed for all the living.

24 

Yet no one stretches out his hand against a ruined man

when he cries for help in his distress

25 

Have I not wept for those in trouble

Has my soul not grieved for the needy?

26 

But when I hoped for good, evil came;

when I looked for light, darkness fell.

27 

I am churning within and cannot rest;

days of affliction confront me.

28 

I go about blackened, but not by the sun.

I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

29 

I have become a brother of jackals,[fn]

a companion vvv of ostriches.[fn]

30 

My skin grows black and peels

and my bones burn with fever.

31 

My harp is tuned to mourning

and my flute to the sound of weeping.[’’] 31