Job 30

But now, alas! the youths, who durst scarcely look me in the face, mock and deride me, even those whose infamous parents I would have disdained to have employed in attending my dogs, or in other of the vilest services

Job 30:2

Being indeed so lazy, listless, and weak, that it was in vain to employ them in any thing, after they had lived so long abandoning themselves to wickedness

Job 30:3-8

Base and beggarly fellows, who, ashamed of their poverty, and to prevent the punishment of their wickedness, had fled into deserts, and there, like wild beasts, lived upon roots and herbs, and lodged in dens, caves, and bushes

Job 30:9

But now they triumph over me, and make my calamities the subject of their songs and merry conversation

Job 30:10

Heartily abhorring me, they disdain to come near me, unless it be contemptuously to spit in my face

Job 30:11

Because God has deprived me of my authority, wealth, and honour, and has grievously afflicted me, they take an unrestrained liberty in their insolent behaviour towards me

Job 30:12

The very boys place themselves as my accusers; they insolently abuse me; and attempt, by different methods, to destroy me

Job 30:13

They endeavour to obstruct all means of comfort and relief to me. They so disturb my mind that I know not what to do. Without having or needing any assistance, they in the most presumptuous manner increase my calamities

Job 30:14

With the most furious and destructive violence, they assault me: and, when God has deprived me of my substance, family, and health, they insult me in the most noisy forms

Job 30:15

Terrors, directed by God against me, seize upon me in the most violent and irresistible manner; and my abundant prosperity is quickly, in a moment, over and gone

Job 30:16

By reason of my terrible afflictions my courage and resolution are quite exhausted, and the powers of my soul so wasted that I can do nothing but melt into tears, and faint away with grief

Job 30:17

In the night, when others rest, my bones are, as it were, pierced and bruised with pain; and the worms, terrors, and agonies, that torment me, never take rest

Job 30:18

By their fearful force my boils, which cover me all over, are like an outer garment to me, and gird me round about; and their filthy matter stains my clothes, and glues them fast to my skin, that I can scarcely get them changed

Job 30:19

I am fearfully plunged into filthy troubles. My foul sores render me like dust and ashes, and reduce me to the point of death

Job 30:20

When I present myself before thee, O God, and continue instant in the most fervent supplications, thou dost but contemn me. 21, 22. Acting as an implacable enemy to me, thou exercisest thy almighty power to destroy me. Thou liftest me up to the wind of thy vengeance, and makest me to ride upon it as stubble driven to and fro. My body is consumed by the violence of my trouble; and my firmest things are made to reel as the waters of the sea tossed with a storm

Job 30:23

Truly by thy thus dealing with me I see that I need look for nothing but death and the grave, that common sanctuary of mankind

Job 30:24

And I hope God will neither exert his almighty power to rescue me from the grave, nor let me in my passage cry out of pains; let friends entreat for my life as they will: nor use it to molest me there, but give me refreshing ease in the state of the dead

Job 30:25

Did not I always sympathize with others in their distress and poverty? And do not I now weep as one condemned to a period of trouble? Does not my soul, as a poor distressed object, pine away with grief?

Job 30:26

For, when I firmly expected great and lasting prosperity, terrible miseries came upon me

Job 30:27

How insupportable are the inward torments of my body, and the anguish of my soul! Days of fearful affliction have rushed upon me before I was aware

Job 30:28

I spend my days without any comfort; and sadness makes me quite unconcerned about light, or any other agreeable object. My trouble forces me to cry out, be as many around me as will

Job 30:29

I can do nothing but seek to be alone, and hiss and howl over my dreadful eyes

Job 30:30

The not moisture of my boils has rendered my skin black, and has inflamed all my bones

Job 30:31

All my joy and mirth are laid aside; and nothing but weeping and wailing are come in their stead

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XXX.—Unsubstantial, uncertain, and transient, are all things but God and the spiritual blessings of his new covenant. But sin, even on earth, makes many the most base and miserable of wretches: the youngest in age, the meanest in extraction, the poorest in property, and the most scandalous in character, are generally the most ready to contemn, insult, and abuse, the greatest and best, when Providence once frowns upon them. And it is hard for wounded spirits to bear up under complicated troubles, terrors of mind, loathsome and painful diseases of body, and frowns of God. But happy are they who can by faith take up the eternal enjoyment of God as a full balance to all the troubles which they can suffer on earth! Happy are they who have the testimony of a good conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity they have had their conversation in this world!