| 1 | “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. |
| 2 | What could I gain from the strength of their hands? All their vigor is gone. |
| 3 | Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry and desolate ground, |
| 4 | they pick mallow and the leaves of bushes, and to warm themselves the roots of broom. |
| 5 | They are driven out from society; people shout after them as after a thief. |
| 6 | In the gullies of wadis they must live, in holes in the ground, and in the rocks. |
| 7 | Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they huddle together. |
| 8 | A senseless, disreputable brood, they have been whipped out of the land. |
| 9 | “And now they mock me in song; I am a byword to them. |
| 10 | They abhor me, they keep aloof from me; they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me. |
| 11 | Because God has loosed my bowstring and humbled me, they have cast off restraint in my presence. |
| 12 | On my right hand the rabble rise up; they send me sprawling, and build roads for my ruin. |
| 13 | They break up my path, they promote my calamity; no one restrains them. |
| 14 | As through a wide breach they come; amid the crash they roll on. |
| 15 | Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud. |
| 16 | “And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me. |
| 17 | The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest. |
| 18 | With violence he seizes my garment; he grasps me by the collar of my tunic. |
| 19 | He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. |
| 20 | I cry to you and you do not answer me; I stand, and you merely look at me. |
| 21 | You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me. |
| 22 | You lift me up on the wind, you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm. |
| 23 | I 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. |
| 25 | Did I not weep for those whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the poor? |
| 26 | But when I looked for good, evil came; and when I waited for light, darkness came. |
| 27 | My inward parts are in turmoil, and are never still; days of affliction come to meet me. |
| 28 | I go about in sunless gloom; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. |
| 29 | I am a brother of jackals, and a companion of ostriches. |
| 30 | My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat. |
| 31 | My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep. |