¹“But now those younger than I laugh at me,

Whose fathers I rejected even to put with the dogs of my flock.

²“Indeed, what good was the strength of their hands to me?

Vigor had perished from them.

³“From want and famine they are gaunt,

Who gnaw the dry ground by night in destruction and desolation,

⁴Who pluck mallow by the bushes,[#30:4 Plant of the salt marshes]

And whose food is the root of the broom tree.

⁵“They are driven from the community;

They shout against them as against a thief,

⁶So that they dwell in the slopes of the valleys,[#30:6 Or wadis]

In holes of the dust and of the rocks.

⁷“Among the bushes they cry out;[#30:7 Or bray]

Under the nettles they are gathered together.

⁸“Wicked fools, even those without a name,[#30:8 Lit Sons of fools; #30:8 Lit sons]

They were scourged from the land.

⁹¶“And now I have become their mocking song;

I have even become a taunting word to them.

¹⁰“They abhor me and keep a distance from me,

And they do not hold back from spitting at my face.

¹¹“Because He has loosed His bowstring and afflicted me,[#30:11 Or they; #30:11 Some mss my; #30:11 Or cord]

They have thrust aside their bridle before me.

¹²“On the right hand their brood arises;[#30:12 Possibly sprout , offspring]

They thrust aside my feet and build up against me their ways to disaster.

¹³“They break up my path;

They profit from my destruction;

They have no helper.

¹⁴“As through a wide breach they come,

Amid the storm they roll on.

¹⁵“Terrors are turned against me;

They pursue my nobility as the wind,

And my hope for salvation has passed away like a cloud.

¹⁶¶“And now my soul is poured out within me;[#30:16 Lit upon]

Days of affliction have seized me.

¹⁷“At night it pierces my bones within me,[#30:17 Lit from upon]

And my gnawing pains take no rest.

¹⁸“By a great force my garment is distorted;

It seizes me about as the collar of my tunic.

¹⁹“He has cast me into the mire,

And I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰“I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer me;

I stand up, and You carefully consider how to be against me.

²¹“You have become cruel to me;[#30:21 Lit turned to be]

With the might of Your hand You hunted me down.

²²“You lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride;

And You melt me away in a storm.

²³“For I know that You will bring me to death

And to the house of meeting for all living.

²⁴¶“Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,

Or, in his upheaval, is there a cry for help because of them?

²⁵“Have I not wept for the one whose life is hard?[#30:25 Lit hard of day]

Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

²⁶“When I hoped for good, then evil came;

When I waited for light, then thick darkness came.

²⁷“I am boiling within and cannot be silent;[#30:27 Lit My inward parts are boiling]

Days of affliction confront me.

²⁸“I go about darkened but not by the sun;

I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help.

²⁹“I have become a brother to jackals

And a companion of ostriches.

³⁰“My skin turns black on me,[#30:30 Lit from upon]

And my bones burn with fever.

³¹“Therefore my harp is turned to mourning,[#30:31 Lit becomes]

And my flute to the sound of those who weep.