²⁴ In place of my food I have grief, and cries of sorrow come from me like water.

⁹ I have had dust for bread and my drink has been mixed with weeping:

⁵ You have given them the bread of weeping for food; for their drink you have given them sorrow in great measure.

³ My tears have been my food day and night, while they keep saying to me, Where is your God?

⁴ Let my soul be overflowing with grief when these things come back to my mind, how I went in company to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with the song of those who were keeping the feast.

⁸ I am feeble and crushed down; I gave a cry like a lion because of the grief in my heart.

⁸ Even when I send up a cry for help, he keeps my prayer shut out.

¹¹ We make noises of grief, like bears, and sad sounds like doves: we are looking for our right, but it is not there; for salvation, but it is far from us.

³ When I kept my mouth shut, my bones were wasted, because of my crying all through the day.

¹ <To the chief music-maker on Aijeleth-hash-shahar. A Psalm. Of David.> My God, my God, why are you turned away from me? why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my crying?

² O my God, I make my cry in the day, and you give no answer; and in the night, and have no rest.

²⁰ He has no desire for food, and his soul is turned away from delicate meat;

¹⁹ How long will it be before your eyes are turned away from me, so that I may have a minute's breathing-space?

⁷ My soul has no desire for such things, they are as disease in my food.