¹"But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I considered unworthy to put with my sheep dogs.

²Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished?

³They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.

⁴They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom tree are their food.

⁵They are driven out from among men. They cry after them as after a thief,

⁶so that they live in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

⁷They bray among the bushes. They are gathered together under the nettles.

⁸They are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men. They were flogged out of the land.

⁹"Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.

¹⁰They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don't hesitate to spit in my face.

¹¹For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have thrown off restraint before me.

¹²On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet. They cast their ways of destruction up against me.

¹³They mar my path. They promote my destruction without anyone's help.

¹⁴As through a wide breach they come. They roll themselves in amid the ruin.

¹⁵Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud.

¹⁶"Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold of me.

¹⁷In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.

¹⁸My garment is disfigured by great force. It binds me about as the collar of my tunic.

¹⁹He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me.

²¹You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me.

²²You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm.

²³For I know that you will bring me to death, to the house appointed for all living.

²⁴"However doesn't one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?

²⁵Didn't I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn't my soul grieved for the needy?

²⁶When I looked for good, then evil came. When I waited for light, darkness came.

²⁷My heart is troubled, and doesn't rest. Days of affliction have come on me.

²⁸I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.

²⁹I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.

³⁰My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.

³¹Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.