Read the Bible

Job’s Honor Turned to Contempt

Verse1“But now they mock me, men younger than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to put with my sheep dogs.

Verse2What use to me was the strength of their hands, since their vigor had left them?

Verse3Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.

Verse4They plucked mallow among the shrubs, and the roots of the broom tree were their food.

Verse5They were banished from among men, shouted at like thieves,

Verse6so that they lived on the slopes of the wadis, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.

Verse7They cried out among the shrubs and huddled beneath the nettles.

Verse8A senseless and nameless brood, they were driven off the land.

Verse9And now they mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.

Verse10They abhor me and keep far from me; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

Verse11Because God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they have cast off restraint in my presence.

Verse12The rabble arises at my right; they lay snares for my feet and build siege ramps against me.

Verse13They tear up my path; they profit from my destruction, with no one to restrain them.

Verse14They advance as through a wide breach; through the ruins they keep rolling in.

Job’s Prosperity Becomes Calamity

Verse15Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.

Verse16And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction grip me.

Verse17Night pierces my bones, and my gnawing pains never rest.

Verse18With great force He grasps my garment; He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.

Verse19He throws me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.

Verse20I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.

Verse21You have ruthlessly turned on me; You oppose me with Your strong hand.

Verse22You snatch me up into the wind and drive me before it; You toss me about in the storm.

Verse23Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.

Verse24Yet no one stretches out his hand against a ruined man when he cries for help in his distress.

Verse25Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has my soul not grieved for the needy?

Verse26But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.

Verse27I am churning within and cannot rest; days of affliction confront me.

Verse28I go about blackened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

Verse29I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches.

Verse30My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.

Verse31My harp is tuned to mourning and my flute to the sound of weeping.