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Second Edition · Explore Scripture, one passage at a time.
30:1 “But now they mock me, those who are younger than I, whose fathers I disdained too much to put with my sheep dogs. 30:2 Moreover, the strength of their hands— what use was it to me? Those whose strength had perished, 30:3 gaunt with want and hunger, they would roam the parched land, by night a desolate waste. 30:4 By the brush they would gather herbs from the salt marshes, and the root of the broom tree was their food. 30:5 They were banished from the community — people shouted at them as they would shout at thieves — 30:6 so that they had to live in the dry stream beds, in the holes of the ground, and among the rocks. 30:7 They brayed like animals among the bushes and were huddled together under the nettles. 30:8 Sons of senseless and nameless people, they were driven out of the land with whips.
30:9 “And now I have become their taunt song; I have become a byword among them. 30:10 They detest me and maintain their distance; they do not hesitate to spit in my face. 30:11 Because God has untied my tent cord and afflicted me, people throw off all restraint in my presence. 30:12 On my right the young rabble rise up; they drive me from place to place and build up siege ramps against me. 30:13 They destroy my path; they succeed in destroying me without anyone assisting them. 30:14 They come in as through a wide breach; amid the crash they come rolling in. 30:15 Terrors are turned loose on me; they drive away my honor like the wind, and as a cloud my deliverance has passed away.
30:16 “And now my soul pours itself out within me; days of suffering take hold of me. 30:17 Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never cease. 30:18 With great power God grasps my clothing; he binds me like the collar of my tunic. 30:19 He has flung me into the mud, and I have come to resemble dust and ashes. 30:20 I cry out to you, but you do not answer me; I stand up, and you only look at me. 30:21 You have become cruel to me; with the strength of your hand you attack me. 30:22 You pick me up on the wind and make me ride on it; you toss me about in the storm. 30:23 I know that you are bringing me to death, to the meeting place for all the living.
30:24 “Surely one does not stretch out his hand against a broken man when he cries for help in his distress. 30:25 Have I not wept for the unfortunate? Was not my soul grieved for the poor? 30:26 But when I hoped for good, trouble came; when I expected light, then darkness came. 30:27 My heart is in turmoil unceasingly; the days of my affliction confront me. 30:28 I go about blackened, but not by the sun; in the assembly I stand up and cry for help. 30:29 I have become a brother to jackals and a companion of ostriches. 30:30 My skin has turned dark on me; my body is hot with fever. 30:31 My harp is used for mourning and my flute for the sound of weeping.
NET Bible Second Edition. Copyright 2017 Biblical Studies Press
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