1But now they that are younger than I have me in derision,
2Yea, the strength of their hands, whereto should it profit me?
3They are gaunt with want and famine; They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.
4They pluck salt-wort by the bushes; And the roots of the broom are their food.
5They are driven forth from the midst [of men]; They cry after them as after a thief;
6So that they dwell in frightful valleys,
7Among the bushes they bray; Under the nettles they are gathered together.
8[They are] children of fools, yea, children of base men; They were scourged out of the land.
9And now I am become their song,
10They abhor me, they stand aloof from me,
11For he hath loosed his cord, and afflicted me; And they have cast off the bridle before me.
12Upon my right hand rise the rabble; They thrust aside my feet,
13They mar my path,
14As through a wide breach they come:
15Terrors are turned upon me; They chase mine honor as the wind; And my welfare is passed away as a cloud.
16And now my soul is poured out within me; Days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
17In the night season my bones are pierced in me,
18By [God's] great force is my garment disfigured; It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.
19He hath cast me into the mire,
20I cry unto thee, and thou dost not answer me:
21Thou art turned to be cruel to me; With the might of thy hand thou persecutest me.
22Thou liftest me up to the wind, thou causest me to ride [upon it]; And thou dissolvest me in the storm.
23For I know that thou wilt bring me to death,
24Howbeit doth not one stretch out the hand in his fall?
25Did not I weep for him that was in trouble?
26When I looked for good, then evil came; And when I waited for light, there came darkness.
27My heart is troubled, and resteth not; Days of affliction are come upon me.
28I go mourning without the sun:
29I am a brother to jackals,
30My skin is black, [and falleth] from me,
31Therefore is my harp [turned] to mourning,