30:2 Moreover, the strength of their 1 hands –
what use was it to me?
Men whose strength 2 had perished;
30:3 gaunt 3 with want and hunger,
they would gnaw 4 the parched land,
in former time desolate and waste. 5
30:4 By the brush 6 they would gather 7 herbs from the salt marshes, 8
and the root of the broom tree was their food.
30:5 They were banished from the community 9 –
people 10 shouted at them
like they would shout at thieves 11 –
30:6 so that they had to live 12
in the dry stream beds, 13
in the holes of the ground, and among the rocks.
30:7 They brayed 14 like animals among the bushes
and were huddled together 15 under the nettles.
30:8 Sons of senseless and nameless people, 16
they were driven out of the land with whips. 17
30:9 “And now I have become their taunt song;
I have become a byword 18 among them.
30:10 They detest me and maintain their distance; 19
they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
30:11 Because God has untied 20 my tent cord and afflicted me,
people throw off all restraint in my presence. 21
30:12 On my right the young rabble 22 rise up;
they drive me from place to place, 23
and build up siege ramps 24 against me. 25
30:13 They destroy 26 my path;
they succeed in destroying me 27
without anyone assisting 28 them.
30:14 They come in as through a wide breach;
amid the crash 29 they come rolling in. 30
30:15 Terrors are turned loose 31 on me;
they drive away 32 my honor like the wind,
and like a cloud my deliverance has passed away.
30:16 “And now my soul pours itself out within me; 33
days of suffering take hold of me.
30:17 Night pierces 34 my bones; 35
my gnawing pains 36 never cease.
30:18 With great power God 37 grasps my clothing; 38
he binds me like the collar 39 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, 40 but you do not answer me;
I stand up, 41 and you only look at me. 42
30:21 You have become cruel to me; 43
with the strength of your hand you attack me. 44
30:22 You pick me up on the wind and make me ride on it; 45
you toss me about 46 in the storm. 47
30:23 I know that you are bringing 48 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 49
when he cries for help in his distress. 50
30:25 Have I not wept for the unfortunate? 51
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 52 is in turmoil 53 unceasingly; 54
the days of my affliction confront me.
30:28 I go about blackened, 55 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. 56
30:30 My skin has turned dark on me; 57
my body 58 is hot with fever. 59
30:31 My harp is used for 60 mourning
and my flute for the sound of weeping.