[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 meat.
[5] They are driven forth from the midst of men; they cry after them as after a thief.
[6] In the clefts of the valleys must they dwell, 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 honour 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 the great force of my disease 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 lookest 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] Surely against a ruinous heap he will not put forth his hand; though it be in his destruction, one may utter a cry because of these things.
[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 bowels boil, and rest 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.