1
“But now those younger than I laugh at me— those whose fathers I would have refused to set with the dogs of my flock.
2
Indeed, what was the strength of their hands to me, when full vigor had perished from them?
3
Through want and hunger they were barren, gnawing the dry ground in a night of destruction and desolation.
4
They plucked salt-herb beside shrubs, and roots of broom were their bread.
5
They were driven from the midst; men shouted after them as after a thief.
6
They dwelt in the ravine of torrents, in holes of dust and rocks.
7
Among shrubs they brayed; beneath thornbushes they gathered.
8
Sons of the foolish, even sons without a name, they were struck from the land.
9
And now I have become their song, and I am a saying to them.
10
They abhor me and keep far from me; they do not withhold spit from my face.
11
For He released my cord and afflicted me; they sent away restraint before my face.
12
At my right the brood rises; they send away my feet and cast up against me their paths of ruin.
13
They tear down my path; they profit from my destruction; there is no helper for them.
14
They enter as through a broad breach; beneath devastation they roll.
15
Terrors are turned upon me; they pursue my nobility like wind, and my Salvation passes like a cloud.
16
And now my being pours itself out upon me; days of affliction seize me.
17
At night my bones are pierced from upon me, and those gnawing me do not lie down.
18
By great power my garment disguises itself; like the collar of my tunic it binds me.
19
He cast me into clay, and I became like dust and ashes.
20
I cry to You, but You do not answer me; I stand, and You consider me.
21
You have changed to become cruel toward me; by the strength of Your hand You oppose me.
22
You lift me to the wind and cause me to ride; You dissolve me in sound wisdom.
23
For I know that You return me to death and to the appointed house for all living.
24
Yet surely He does not send a hand against a ruin when in his calamity there is a cry for help.
25
Did I not weep for the one whose day was hard? Did my being not grieve for the needy?
26
When I waited for good, evil came; I hoped for light, and thick darkness entered.
27
My inward parts boil and do not rest; days of affliction confront me.
28
I walk darkened, but not by the sun; I rise in the assembly and cry for help.
29
I have become a brother to jackals and a companion to daughters of the ostrich.
30
My skin blackens upon me, and my bones burn from heat.
31
My lyre has become mourning, and my pipe the voice of those weeping.