Job’s final speech (part b): Job 29–31

As Job looked back longingly on more prosperous days, he remembered the respect he’d had at the time:

^{Job 29:8} The young stepped aside when they saw me,
and even the aged rose in respect at my coming.

But now:

^{Job 30:1} But now I am mocked by people younger than I,
by young men whose fathers are not worthy to run with my sheepdogs.
…
^{Job 30:9-12} And now they mock me with vulgar songs!
They taunt me!
They despise me and won’t come near me,
except to spit in my face.
For God has cut my bowstring.
He has humbled me,
so they have thrown off all restraint.
These outcasts oppose me to my face.
They send me sprawling
and lay traps in my path.

Job feels the loss, and the people around him see it too:

^{Job 30:15} My honor has blown away in the wind,
and my prosperity has vanished like a cloud.