^{1 Ref} "But now those who are younger than I, have me in derision, Whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.

² Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, Men in whom ripe age has perished?

^{3 Ref} They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.

^{4 Ref} They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom are their food.

^{5 Ref} They are driven forth from the midst of men; They cry after them as after a thief;

^{6 Ref} So that they dwell in frightful valleys, And in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

^{7 Ref} Among the bushes they bray; And under the nettles they are gathered together.

^{8 Ref} They are children of fools, yes, children of base men. They were flogged out of the land.

^{9 Ref} "Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.

^{10 Ref} They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, And don't hesitate to spit in my face.

^{11 Ref} For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; And they have thrown off restraint before me.

^{12 Ref} On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, They cast up against me their ways of destruction.

^{13 Ref} They mar my path, They set forward my calamity, Without anyone's help.

^{14 Ref} As through a wide breach they come, In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves in.

^{15 Ref} Terrors are turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud.

^{16 Ref} "Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold on me.

^{17 Ref} In the night season my bones are pierced in me, And the pains that gnaw me take no rest.

^{18 Ref} By great force is my garment disfigured. It binds me about as the collar of my coat.

^{19 Ref} He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.

^{20 Ref} I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me.

^{21 Ref} You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me.

^{22 Ref} You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm.

^{23 Ref} For I know that you will bring me to death, To the house appointed for all living.

^{24 Ref} "However doesn't one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?

^{25 Ref} Didn't I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn't my soul grieved for the needy?

^{26 Ref} When I looked for good, then evil came; When I waited for light, there came darkness.

^{27 Ref} My heart is troubled, and doesn't rest. Days of affliction have come on me.

^{28 Ref} I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.

^{29 Ref} I am a brother to jackals, And a companion to ostriches.

^{30 Ref} My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.

^{31 Ref} Therefore is my harp turned to mourning, And my pipe into the voice of those who weep.