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.

“But now they mock me, men younger than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to entrust with my sheep dogs.

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

What use to me was the strength of their hands, since their vigor had left them?

For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.

Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.

Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.

They plucked mallow among the shrubs, and the roots of the broom tree were their food.

They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;)

They were banished from among men, shouted down like thieves,

To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.

so that they lived on the slopes of the wadis, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.

Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.

They cried out among the shrubs and huddled beneath the nettles.

They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.

A senseless and nameless brood, they were driven off the land.

And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.

And now they mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.

They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.

They abhor me and keep far from me; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me.

Because God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they have cast off restraint in my presence.

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

The rabble arises at my right; they lay snares for my feet and build siege ramps against me.

They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper.

They tear up my path; they profit from my destruction, with no one to restrain them.

They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.

They advance as through a wide breach; through the ruins they keep rolling in.

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

Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.

And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.

And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction grip me.

My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.

Night pierces my bones, and my gnawing pains never rest.

By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.

With great force He grasps my garment; He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.

He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.

He throws me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.

I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not.

I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.

Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me.

You have ruthlessly turned on me; You oppose me with Your strong hand.

Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance.

You snatch me up into the wind and drive me before it; You toss me about in the storm.

For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.

Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.

Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.

Yet no one stretches out his hand to a ruined man when he cries for help in his distress.

Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?

Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has my soul not grieved for the needy?

When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.

But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.

My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.

I am churning within and cannot rest; days of affliction confront me.

I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.

I go about blackened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.

I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches.

My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.

My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.

My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.

My harp is tuned to mourning and my flute to the sound of weeping.