International Standard Version

English Standard Version

1"But now they mock me; men who are far younger than I, whose fathers I would have hated to entrust with my own sheep dogs.

1“But now they laugh at me, men who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.

2Furthermore, what could I have gained from men whose strength is gone?

2What could I gain from the strength of their hands, men whose vigor is gone?

3Unproductive due to poverty and hunger, they could only scratch in parched soil, devastated and desolated.

3Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation;

4"They would pluck off herbs from salt marshes to eat; and roots of the broom shrub for food.

4they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes, and the roots of the broom tree for their food.

5Driven away from human company, they were shouted at as though they were thieves.

5They are driven out from human company; they shout after them as after a thief.

6They lived in the most dangerous of ravines, in holes in the ground, and among rocks.

6In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell, in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

7They bray like donkeys among the bushes and huddle together under the desert weeds.

7Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they huddle together.

8Sons of fools and of uncertain reputation, they have been driven from the land by scourging."

8A senseless, a nameless brood, they have been whipped out of the land.

9"Now, I've become the object of their mocking melodies; I'm nothing but a fool's proverb to them!

9“And now I have become their song; I am a byword to them.

10They abhor me—they keep their distance from me; but they don't refrain from spitting at the sight of me.

10They abhor me; they keep aloof from me; they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.

11But God has loosened his cord and afflicted me; so they've cast off all restraints in my presence.

11Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me, they have cast off restraint in my presence.

12"A wretched crowd ambushes me to my right; they trip my feet; they build up their path of calamity for me.

12On my right hand the rabble rise; they push away my feet; they cast up against me their ways of destruction.

13They tear up my pathways; they profit from my destruction, and they need no help to do this!

13They break up my path; they promote my calamity; they need no one to help them.

14They come like those who breach through a wall; as everything crashes around me they'll roll on and on!

14As through a wide breach they come; amid the crash they roll on.

15My greatest fears have overcome me; my honor is assaulted as though by a wind storm; my prosperity evaporates like a morning cloud."

15Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

16"Now, my soul pours itself out; the time of my affliction has taken control of me.

16“And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me.

17The night racks my bones; and the pain that gnaws on me will not rest.

17The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.

18My clothes are disheveled by his forceful treatment of me; he restricts my movement like the collar of my cloak.

18With great force my garment is disfigured; it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.

19"He tossed me into the mire; I've become like dust and ashes.

19God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.

20I cry for help to you, but you won't answer me; I stand still, but you only look at me.

20I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me.

21You changed toward me, and now you're cruel to me; with your mighty hand you are persecuting me;

21You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me.

22you carried me off in a wind storm, making me ride on it while you toss me about as the storm roars around me.

22You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.

23I know that you're about to kill me, so I'm about to go to the house that's appointed for all the living."

23For I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living.

24"Surely he won't stretch his hand against the needy, will he, especially if they cry to him in their calamity?

24“Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster cry for help?

25Haven't I wept for the one who is going through hard times? Haven't I grieved for the needy?

25Did not I weep for him whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

26I have hoped for good, but evil came instead; I have hoped for light, but darkness came.

26But when I hoped for good, evil came, and when I waited for light, darkness came.

27I'm boiling mad inside, and I won't remain silent; the time for my affliction to confront me has arrived.

27My inward parts are in turmoil and never still; days of affliction come to meet me.

28"In growing darkness, I walked without sunlight; I stood in the congregation to cry for help.

28I go about darkened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

29I've become a brother to jackals, and a friend to ostriches.

29I am a brother of jackals and a companion of ostriches.

30My skin turns black all over me; and my bones seem burned from the heat.

30My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat.

31But my harp is in mourning; my flute plays only songs for those who are weeping." Job Asserts His Moral Innocence

31My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.

The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY.

ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.