[1] But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, Whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.
[2] Yea, the strength of their hands, whereto should it profit me? Men in whom ripe age is perished.
[3] They are gaunt with want and famine; They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.
[4] They pluck salt-wort by the bushes; And the roots of the broom are their food.
[5] They are driven forth from the midst of men; They cry after them as after a thief;
[6] So that they dwell in frightful valleys, In holes of the earth and of the rocks.
[7] Among the bushes they bray; Under the nettles they are gathered together.
[8] They arechildren of fools, yea, children of base men; They were scourged out of the land.
[9] And now I am become their song, Yea, I am a byword unto them.
[10] They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, And spare not to spit in my face.
[11] For he hath loosed his cord, and afflicted me; And they have cast off the bridle before me.
[12] Upon my right hand rise the rabble; They thrust aside my feet, And they cast up against me their ways of destruction.
[13] They mar my path, They set forward my calamity, Even men that have no helper.
[14] As through a wide breach they come: In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me.
[15] Terrors are turned upon me; They chase mine honor as the wind; And my welfare is passed away as a cloud.
[16] And now my soul is poured out within me; Days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
[17] In the night season my bones are pierced in me, And thepainsthat gnaw me take no rest.
[18] By God’sgreat force is my garment disfigured; It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.
[19] He hath cast me into the mire, And I am become like dust and ashes.
[20] I cry unto thee, and thou dost not answer me: I stand up, and thou gazest at me.
[21] Thou art turned to be cruel to me; With the might of thy hand thou persecutest me.
[22] Thou liftest me up to the wind, thou causest me to rideupon it; And thou dissolvest me in the storm.
[23] For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, And to the house appointed for all living.
[24] Howbeit doth not one stretch out the hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
[25] Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
[26] When I looked for good, then evil came; And when I waited for light, there came darkness.
[27] My heart is troubled, and resteth not; Days of affliction are come upon me.
[28] I go mourning without the sun: I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
[29] I am a brother to jackals, And a companion to ostriches.
[30] My skin is black, and fallethfrom me, And my bones are burned with heat.
[31] Therefore is my harpturnedto mourning, And my pipe into the voice of them that weep.
