30 ¹But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock. ²Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished? ³For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste. ⁴Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat. ⁵They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;) ⁶To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks. ⁷Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together. ⁸They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth. ⁹And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword. ¹⁰They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face. ¹¹Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me. ¹²Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction. ¹³They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper. ¹⁴They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me. ¹⁵Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud. ¹⁶And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me. ¹⁷My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest. ¹⁸By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat. ¹⁹He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes. ²⁰I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not. ²¹Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me. ²²Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance. ²³For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living. ²⁴Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction. ²⁵Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor? ²⁶When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. ²⁷My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me. ²⁸I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation. ²⁹I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls. ³⁰My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat. ³¹My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.

31 ¹I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid? ²For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high? ³Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity? ⁴Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps? ⁵If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit; ⁶Let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know mine integrity. ⁷If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands; ⁸Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out. ⁹If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door; ¹⁰Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her. ¹¹For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges. ¹²For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase. ¹³If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me; ¹⁴What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? ¹⁵Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb? ¹⁶If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; ¹⁷Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; ¹⁸(For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;) ¹⁹If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering; ²⁰If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep; ²¹If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate: ²²Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone. ²³For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure. ²⁴If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence; ²⁵If I rejoice because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much; ²⁶If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; ²⁷And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand: ²⁸This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above. ²⁹If I rejoice at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him: ³⁰Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul. ³¹If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied. ³²The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller. ³³If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom: ³⁴Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door? ³⁵Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book. ³⁶Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me. ³⁷I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him. ³⁸If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain; ³⁹If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life: ⁴⁰Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.