No one respects the people who laugh at Job
1Job said:
‘Some people are laughing at me.
They are people who are younger than I am,
and people whose fathers are not important.
I would not even let them sit with the dogs
that look after my sheep.
2They are people who are too weak to work for me.
3Those people are so poor and hungry
that they will eat anything
that they can get in the desert.
4They eat saltbush and the leaves
from bushes, and they dig out the roots
of broom bushes for food.
5People chase them away and
shout at them like they shout at a thief.
6They live at the sides of dry rivers,
in holes in the ground among the rocks.
7They are so hungry that they shout
like wild animals from under the thorn-bushes
where they sit together.
8They are worthless people.
No one knows their names or respects them,
and people beat them and chase them away.’
Job says that people mock and attack him
9‘They mock me and
sing songs about me and laugh at me.
10They don't want to come near me.
They stay far away and when they come near to me,
they spit in my face.
11God has taken away my strength,
like a bow without a string.
He has humiliated me, and people who see me
do whatever they want to do to me.
12People come to me in groups
to attack me.
They want to catch and kill me.
13When I want to run away,
they stop me. There is no one to help me.
They enjoy destroying me.
14They run to me like soldiers
who go through a broken wall of a city,
who run quickly past the heaps of stones.
15I fear so much that I don't know what to do.
I have lost all my honour. It is gone
as if the wind has blown it away.
I have no hope left.’
Job says God attacks him
16‘My life is almost over,
and I suffer every day.
17Every night my bones and body hurt.
The pain goes on and on, and never stops.
18God grabs my clothes
and holds me with his great strength.
He grabs me by the neck of my coat
19and He throws me into the mud.
I have become like dust and ashes.
20O God, I cry out to You
and I ask You to help me,
but You don't answer me. I stand up,
but You just look at me,
and You don't do anything.
21You have become cruel to me.
You have chased and attacked me
with your strong hand.
22You lift me up and You throw me
into a stormy wind,
which blows me from this side to that side.
23Yes, I know that You want
to give me to Death.
You want to take me to the place
where everyone will go, to the grave.
24But I have always helped people
when they have suffered, and shouted
and asked someone to help them.
25I have cried with people who were in trouble.
I always felt sorry for poor people.
26When I hoped that all would be well with me,
bad things happened to me.
When I hoped that the light would shine on me,
only darkness came.’
Job asks someone for help, but no one helps him
27‘I am upset. Inside me, nothing is calm
and it gets worse every day.
28Every day I live in the dark,
and the sun does not shine on me.
I stand in front of people
and ask them to help me.
29I cry with the foxes and wild dogs.
I am alone like an ostrich.
30My skin has become black,
and the bones in my body are hot with fever.
31I want to play a lyre to mourn.
I want to play a flute for people
to sing a lamentation and cry.’
