[1] “But now they mock me, men younger than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to entrust with my sheep dogs.
[2] What use to me was the strength of their hands, since their vigor had left them?
[3] Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.
[4] They plucked mallow among the shrubs, and the roots of the broom tree were their food.
[5] They were banished from among men, shouted down like thieves,
[6] so that they lived on the slopes of the wadis, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
[7] They cried out among the shrubs and huddled beneath the nettles.
[8] A senseless and nameless brood, they were driven off the land.
[9] And now they mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.
[10] They abhor me and keep far from me; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
[11] Because God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they have cast off restraint in my presence.
[12] The rabble arises at my right; they lay snares for my feet and build siege ramps against me.
[13] They tear up my path; they profit from my destruction, with no one to restrain them.
[14] They advance as through a wide breach; through the ruins they keep rolling in.
[15] Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.
[16] And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction grip me.
[17] Night pierces my bones, and my gnawing pains never rest.
[18] With great force He grasps my garment; He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.
[19] He throws me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.
[20] I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.
[21] You have ruthlessly turned on me; You oppose me with Your strong hand.
[22] You snatch me up into the wind and drive me before it; You toss me about in the storm.
[23] Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
[24] Yet no one stretches out his hand to a ruined man when he cries for help in his distress.
[25] Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has my soul not grieved for the needy?
[26] But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.
[27] I am churning within and cannot rest; days of affliction confront me.
[28] I go about blackened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
[29] I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches.
[30] My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.
[31] My harp is tuned to mourning and my flute to the sound of weeping.