Job’s Honor Turned to Contempt

Job says that now he is mocked by men younger than he, men whose fathers he once regarded as beneath even the lowest place in his household. He sketches them as gaunt, rootless, and socially cast off, driven into wastelands and ravines until they seem almost a breed formed by deprivation and disgrace.

“¹But now they mock me, ²What use to me was the strength of their hands, ³Gaunt from poverty and hunger, ⁴They plucked mallow among the shrubs, ⁵They were banished from among men, ⁶so that they lived on the slopes of the wadis, ⁷They cried out among the shrubs ⁸A senseless and nameless brood,

These same people now turn Job into a byword and song, keep their distance in loathing, and yet still do not hesitate to spit near him. Because God has loosed Job's strength and afflicted him, the rabble rise at his right hand, tear up his path, and come on like invaders through a broken wall.

⁹And now they mock me in song; ¹⁰They abhor me and keep far from me; ¹¹Because God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, ¹²The rabble arises at my right; ¹³They tear up my path; ¹⁴They advance as through a wide breach;