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 are] children 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 the [pains] that gnaw me take no rest. 18: By [God's] great 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 ride [upon 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 falleth] from me, And my bones are burned with heat. 31: Therefore is my harp [turned] to mourning, And my pipe into the voice of them that weep.
