Job 30: Just more ‘Oh woe is me’ from Job.
Job Part 30 of 42
1 “But now those who are younger than I have me in derision,
whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
Hard to blame them if you think it fitting to speak about their fathers that way.
2 Of what use is the strength of their hands to me,
men in whom ripe age has perished?
Just because a person is aged, doesn’t make them useless.
3 They are gaunt from lack and famine.
They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.
4 They pluck salt herbs by the bushes.
The roots of the broom are their food.
5 They are driven out from the midst of men.
They cry after them as after a thief;
6 So that they dwell in frightful valleys,
and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
These are God’s people you’re talking about. It doesn’t sound like he’s doing a great job of looking after them.
7 Among the bushes they bray;
and under the nettles they are gathered together.
8 They are children of fools, yes, children of base men.
They were flogged out of the land.
9 “Now I have become their song.
Yes, I am a byword to them.
Maybe now you are just getting a taste of what it is like to be them. Maybe if you had been kinder to them.
10 They abhor me, they stand aloof from me,
and don’t hesitate to spit in my face.
11 For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me;
and they have thrown off restraint before me.
Truly honorable and moral people are respected. If you thought about their fathers the way you say, it doesn’t sound you like deserve to be respected as much as you think.
12 On my right hand rise the rabble.
They thrust aside my feet,
They cast up against me their ways of destruction.
13 They mar my path,
They set forward my calamity,
without anyone’s help.
14 As through a wide breach they come,
in the midst of the ruin they roll themselves in.
15 Terrors have turned on me.
They chase my honor as the wind.
My welfare has passed away as a cloud.
This is where you should say ‘Thank God’. After all, it’s happening because he’s allowing it. Shouldn’t you be thankful? 
16 “Now my soul is poured out within me.
Days of affliction have taken hold on me.
17 In the night season my bones are pierced in me,
and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.
18 By great force is my garment disfigured.
It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
19 He has cast me into the mire.
I have become like dust and ashes.
20 I cry to you, and you do not answer me.
I stand up, and you gaze at me.
21 You have turned to be cruel to me.
With the might of your hand you persecute me.
Chant with me: Loving God, Merciful God! Loving God, Merciful God! Loving God, Merciful God!
22 You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it.
You dissolve me in the storm.
23 For I know that you will bring me to death,
To the house appointed for all living.
24 “However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall?
Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
25 Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble?
Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy?
Wasn’t it also rude to others less fortunate? Do you remember this line you said earlier, “whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.”? You aren’t as deserving as you think you are.
26 When I looked for good, then evil came;
When I waited for light, there came darkness.
27 My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest.
Days of affliction have come on me.
28 I go mourning without the sun.
I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
29 I am a brother to jackals,
and a companion to ostriches.
There’s laws about such things these days.
30 My skin grows black and peels from me.
My bones are burned with heat.
31 Therefore my harp has turned to mourning,
and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.
Sigh…