¹BUT NOW they who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.

²Yes, how could the strength of their hands profit me? They were men whose ripe age and vigor had perished.

³They are gaunt with want and famine; they gnaw the dry and barren ground or flee into the wilderness, into the gloom of wasteness and desolation.

⁴They pluck saltwort or mallows among the bushes, and roots of the broom for their food or to warm them.

⁵They are driven from among men, who shout after them as after a thief.

⁶They must dwell in the clefts of frightful valleys (gullies made by torrents) and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

⁷Among the bushes they bray and howl [like wild animals]; beneath the prickly scrub they fling themselves and huddle together.

⁸Sons of the worthless and nameless, they have been scourged and crushed out of the land.

⁹And now I have become their song; yes, I am a byword to them.

¹⁰They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and do not refrain from spitting in my face or at the sight of me.

¹¹For God has loosed my bowstring and afflicted and humbled me; they have cast off the bridle [of restraint] before me.

¹²On my right hand rises the rabble brood; they jostle me and push away my feet, and they cast up against me their ways of destruction [like an advancing army].

¹³They break up and clutter my path [embarrassing my plans]; they urge on my calamity, even though they have no helper [and are themselves helpless].

¹⁴As through a wide breach they come in; amid the crash [of falling walls] they roll themselves upon me.

¹⁵Terrors are turned upon me; my honor and reputation they chase away like the wind, and my welfare has passed away as a cloud.

¹⁶And now my life is poured out within me; the days of affliction have gripped me.

¹⁷My bones are pierced [with aching] in the night season, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.

¹⁸By the great force [of my disease] my garment is disguised and disfigured; it binds me about like the collar of my coat.

¹⁹[God] has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰I cry to You, [Lord,] and You do not answer me; I stand up, but You [only] gaze [indifferently] at me.

²¹You have become harsh and cruel to me; with the might of Your hand You [keep me alive only to] persecute me.

²²You lift me up on the wind; You cause me to ride upon it, and You toss me about in the tempest.

²³For I know that You will bring me to death and to the house [of meeting] appointed for all the living.

²⁴However, does not one falling in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand? Or in his calamity will he not therefore cry for help?

²⁵Did not I weep for him who was in trouble? Was not my heart grieved for the poor and needy?

²⁶But when I looked for good, then evil came to me; and when I waited for light, there came darkness.

²⁷My heart is troubled and does not rest; days of affliction come to meet me.

²⁸I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the congregation and cry for help.

²⁹I am a brother to jackals [which howl], and a companion to ostriches [which scream dismally].

³⁰My skin falls from me in blackened flakes, and my bones are burned with heat.

³¹Therefore my lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.