^{1 Ref} But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.

² Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?

^{3 Ref} For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.

^{4 Ref} Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.

^{5 Ref} They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;)

^{6 Ref} To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.

^{7 Ref} Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.

^{8 Ref} They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.

^{9 Ref} And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.

^{10 Ref} They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.

^{11 Ref} Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me.

^{12 Ref} Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.

^{13 Ref} They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper.

^{14 Ref} They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.

^{15 Ref} Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.

^{16 Ref} And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.

^{17 Ref} My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.

^{18 Ref} By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.

^{19 Ref} He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.

^{20 Ref} I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not.

^{21 Ref} Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me.

^{22 Ref} Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance.

^{23 Ref} For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.

^{24 Ref} Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.

^{25 Ref} Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?

^{26 Ref} When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.

^{27 Ref} My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.

^{28 Ref} I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.

^{29 Ref} I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.

^{30 Ref} My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.

^{31 Ref} My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.