Job 30

From the foregoing account of his ancient splendour, he takes occasion to annex a no-less-elegant description of the vileness of.his present condition. Hoping that the. consideration of such a prodigious change (which he represents in several particulars, and not without some touches still upon his integrity), might at last move his hard-hearted friends to some compassion towards him; especially, when they saw how near he was to his gTave, notwithstanding all his prayers to God for relief. had had a mind to employ, wero fit for nothing; being so lazy, listless, and unable to do any business, that it was in vain to call them to it.

Job 30:1

JtiUTnow 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. But now, alas! there is so sad an alteration, that the youths, who durst not look me in the face, have the confidence to mock and jeer me; even those youths, whose fathers were so mean, that I disdained to employ them in the vilest service.

Job 30:2

Yea, whereto might the streiigth of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?. Men whom, if I

Job 30:3

For tvant and famine they tvere solitary; fleeing into the tvilderness in former time desolate and tuaste. Beggarly fellows, who, being ready to starve, were ashamed to be seen; and sneaked into desert places to hide their poverty: it is but yesterday that they were most wretchedly miserable;

Job 30:4

WTio cut np mallows by the bushes, and juniperroots for their 7iieat. Satisfying their hunger with those unsavoury herbs, which they cut up in the salt marshes; and having no other bread but the roots of juniper-trees.

Job 30:5

They tvere driven forth from among men (they cried after them as after a thief). They were driven from the society of men; and, if ever they appeared, an outcry was raised against them, as there is against a thief when he is discovered. Ver. G. To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.] They had no other habitation, but the clefts which the brooks sometimes make in the valleys; or the caves which they found in other parts of the earth, or in the rocks.,

Job 30:7

Among the bushes they brayed, under the nettles they tvere gathered together. Their sighs might be heard, like the braying of asses, among the thorn-bushes; they lurked together under nettles or thistles:

Job 30:8

They were children of fools, yea, children of base men; they were viler than the earth. Being lewd villains, the children of obscure parents; viler than the earth upon which they trod.

Job 30:9

And I now am their song; yea, I am their byword. And I now am become their pastime: they have made songs of my calamity; and it is the common entertainment to discourse of my misery.

Job 30:10

Tlxey abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face. They express an abhorrence of me; and, as vile as they are, will not come near me; or if they do, it is only to shew their extreme contempt of me.

Job 30:11

Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me. God, they see, hath scattered all my estate, and, by sore afflictions, laid me very low; which hath made them forget all respect to me, and take an unrestrained licence in their insolent behaviour towards me.

Job 30:12

Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction. They set up the very boys to accuse me; they push me down, and then trample on me. I am become the beaten path,* as I may call myself, of their pernicious reproaches.

Job 30:13

TJiey mar my path; they set forward my calamity; they have no helper. They so disturb my thoughts, that I know not what course to take in this miserable condition: which they heighten by their calumnies; and are so fruitful in them, that they need none to help to invent them.

Job 30:14

- They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me. They assault me with such a fury as soldiers do their enemies, when they have made a wide breach in the wall of a besieged city, and pour in all their forces to destroy them.

Job 30:15

Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind; and my welfare passeth away as a cloud. This dismal change hath fearfully astonished me; to see all my wishes and hopes disperse* 1 like the wind, and all the happiness I possessed passed away as swiftly as a cloud. Ver. 1G. And now my soid is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.] I can do nothing now but melt into tears; my very soul is ready to faint away with grief, when I think how those joyful days are gone, and what distresses have seized on me, and come to take their place.

Job 30:17

My bones are pierced in me in the night-season; and my sinews take no rest. In the night (when sleep is wont to bury our grief) I feel such sharp pains, as penetrate through my very bones; my blood boils so violently in my veins, that I can take no rest.

Job 30:18

By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat. It requires a great deal of strength, when I would shift my clothes, to pull them off; my outward garment, by the filthy matter of my sores, being glued as fast to me, as the collar of my shirt. •

Job 30:19

He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes. I look as if I had been thrown into the dirt: there is little difference between me and dust and ashes.

Job 30:20

I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me; I stand tip, and thou regardest me not. And, which is saddest of all, I call upon thee, O God, but cannot prevail with thee to relieve me: I continue praying and waiting for thy help, and thou sufficiently understandest my miserable case.

Job 30:21

Thou art become cruel to me; tvith thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me. But thy former kindness to me is turned into such severity, that it looks like cruelty: thou hast given me such deadly blows, as. if thou hatedst me.

Job 30:22

Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance. Thou didst lift me up on high, and madest me, as it were, to ride upon the clouds: but hast thrown me down with -so much the sorer fall, which hath broken me all in pieces.

Job 30:23

For I know that thou ivilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all liviiig. So that I can think of nothing but dying, and going to my grave; the common sanctuary of all mankind.

Job 30:24

Hoivbeit he trill not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction. Whither thy afflicting hand will not pursue me: for, though men cry when they are sent thither, yet when they are there, all their sufferings and complaints are ended.

Job 30:25

Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?. Strange that I should be thus punished without any mercy! was I wont to be so unmerciful to others? No, I never looked upon men under any hardship without tears; and was so sensibly touched with the miseries of the poor, that I ever relieved them. Ver. 2G. When I looked for good, then evil came unto me; and when I waited for light, there came darkness.] Which gave me good hope that I should be very happy: but, instead thereof, the saddest afflictions and troubles are befallen me.

Job 30:27

My bowels boiled, and rested?iot; the days of affliction prevented me. Which have so suddenly surprised