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29Job again took up his discourse and said:

30“But now they make sport of me, those who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. ²What could I gain from the strength of their hands? All their vigor is gone. ¹⁶“And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me. ¹⁷The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest. ¹⁸With violence he seizes my garment; he grasps me by the collar of my tunic. ¹⁹He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. ²⁰I cry to you and you do not answer me; I stand, and you merely look at me. ²¹You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me. ²²You lift me up on the wind, you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm. ²³I know that you will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living. ²⁴“Surely one does not turn against the needy, when in disaster they cry for help. ²⁵Did I not weep for those whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the poor? ²⁶But when I looked for good, evil came; and when I waited for light, darkness came. ²⁷My inward parts are in turmoil, and are never still; days of affliction come to meet me. ²⁸I go about in sunless gloom; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. ²⁹I am a brother of jackals, and a companion of ostriches. ³⁰My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat. ³¹My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.

¹⁹But Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds. Then they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. ²⁰But when the disciples surrounded him, he got up and went into the city. The next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. ²¹After they had proclaimed the good news to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, then on to Iconium and Antioch. ²²There they strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith, saying, “It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God.” ²³And after they had appointed elders for them in each church, with prayer and fasting they entrusted them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe. ²⁴Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. ²⁵When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia. ²⁶From there they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had completed. ²⁷When they arrived, they called the church together and related all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith for the Gentiles. ²⁸And they stayed there with the disciples for some time.