1“But now those younger than I mock and laugh at me,

Whose fathers I refused to put with the sheepdogs of my flock.

2“Indeed, how could the strength of their hands profit me?

Vigor had perished from them.

3“They are gaunt with want and famine;

They gnaw the dry and barren ground by night in [the gloom of] waste and desolation.

4“They pluck [and eat] [a]saltwort (mallows) among the bushes,

And their food is the root of the broom shrub.

5“They are driven from the community;

They shout after them as after a thief.

6“They must dwell on the slopes of [b]wadis

And in holes in the ground and in rocks.

7“Among the bushes they cry out [like wild animals];

Beneath the prickly scrub they gather and huddle together.

8“They are the sons of [worthless and nameless] fools,

They have been driven out of the land.

9“And now I have become [the subject of] their taunting;

Yes, I am a [c]byword and a laughingstock to them.

10“They hate me, they stand aloof from me,

And do not refrain from spitting in my face.

11“For God has loosed His bowstring [attacking me] and [He has] afflicted and humbled me;

They have cast off the bridle [of restraint] before me.

12“On my right the [rabble] brood rises;

They push my feet away, and they build up their ways of destruction against me [like an advancing army].

13“They break up and clutter my path [upsetting my plans],

They profit from my destruction;

No one restrains them.

14“As through a wide breach they come,

Amid the crash [of falling walls] they roll on [over me].

15“Terrors are turned upon me;

They chase away my honor and reputation like the wind,

And my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

16“And now my soul is poured out within me;

The days of affliction have seized me.

17“My bones are pierced [with aching] in the night season,

And the pains that gnaw me take no rest.

18“By the great force [of my disease] my garment (skin) is disfigured and blemished;

It binds about me [choking me] like the collar of my coat.

19“God has cast me into the mire [a swampland of crisis],

And I have become [worthless] like dust and ashes.

20“I cry to You for help, [Lord,] but You do not answer me;

I stand up, but You [only] gaze [indifferently] at me.

21“You have become harsh and cruel to me;

With the might of Your hand You [keep me alive only to] persecute me.

22“You lift me up on the wind and cause me to ride [upon it];

And You toss me about in the tempest and dissolve me in the storm.

23“For I know that You will bring me to death

And to the house of meeting [appointed] for all the living.

24“However, does not one falling in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand?

Or in his disaster [will he not] therefore cry out for help?

25“Did I not weep for one whose life was hard and filled with trouble?

Was not my heart grieved for the needy?

26“When I expected good, then came evil [to me];

And when I waited for light, then came darkness.

27“I am seething within and my heart is troubled and cannot rest;

Days of affliction come to meet me.

28“I go about mourning without comfort [my skin blackened by disease, not by the heat of the sun];

I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help.

29“I am a brother to [howling] jackals,

And a companion to ostriches [which scream dismally].

30“My skin falls from me in blackened flakes,

And my bones are burned with fever.

31“Therefore my lyre (harp) is used for [the sound of] mourning,

And my flute for the [sound of the] voices of those who weep.