Job shews the wonderful change of his temporal estate, from welfare to
great calamity.
30:1. But now the younger in time scorn me, whose fathers I would not
have set with the dogs of my flock:
But now the younger in time.... That is, younger than I am, and as it
were obscure, when I was conspicuous and in magnificence; they now look
down on me.
30:2. The strength of whose hands was to me as nothing, and they were
thought unworthy of life itself.
30:3. Barren with want and hunger, who gnawed in the wilderness,
disfigured with calamity and misery.
30:4. And they ate grass, and barks of trees, and the root of junipers
was their food.
30:5. Who snatched up these things out of the valleys, and when they
had found any of them, they ran to them with a cry.
30:6. They dwelt in the desert places of torrents, and in caves of
earth, or upon the gravel.
30:7. They pleased themselves among these kind of things, and counted
it delightful to be under the briers.
30:8. The children of foolish and base men, and not appearing at all
upon the earth.
30:9. Now I am turned into their song, and am become their byword.
30:10. They abhor me, and flee far from me, and are not afraid to spit
in my face.
30:11. For he hath opened his quiver, and hath afflicted me, and hath
put a bridle into my mouth.
30:12. At the right hand of my rising, my calamities forthwith arose:
they have overthrown my feet, and have overwhelmed me with their paths
as with waves.
30:13. They have destroyed my ways, they have lain in wait against me,
and they have prevailed, and there was none to help.
30:14. They have rushed in upon me, as when a wall is broken, and a
gate opened, and have rolled themselves down to my miseries.
30:15. I am brought to nothing: as a wind thou hast taken away my
desire: and my prosperity hath passed away like a cloud.
30:16. And now my soul fadeth within myself, and the days of affliction
possess me.
30:17. In the night my bone is pierced with sorrows: and they that feed
upon me, do not sleep.
30:18. With the multitude of them my garment is consumed, and they have
girded me about, as with the collar of my coat.
30:19. I am compared to dirt, and am likened to embers and ashes.
30:20. I cry to thee, and thou hearest me not: I stand up, and thou
dost not regard me.
30:21. Thou art changed to be cruel toward me, and in the hardness of
thy hand thou art against me.
30:22. Thou hast lifted me up, and set me as it were upon the wind, and
thou hast mightily dashed me.
30:23. I know that thou wilt deliver me to death, where a house is
appointed for every one that liveth.
30:24. But yet thou stretchest not forth thy hand to their consumption:
and if they shall fall down thou wilt save.
30:25. I wept heretofore for him that was afflicted, and my soul had
compassion on the poor.
30:26. I expected good things, and evils are come upon me: I waited for
light, and darkness broke out.
30:27. My inner parts have boiled without any rest, the days of
affliction have prevented me.
30:28. I went mourning without indignation; I rose up, and cried in the
crowd.
30:29. I was the brother of dragons, and companion of ostriches.
Brother of dragons, etc.... Imitating these creatures in their
lamentable noise.
30:30. My skin is become black upon me, and my bones are dried up with
heat.
30:31. My harp is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of
those that weep.