###### 1
"But now those younger than I laugh at me, Whose fathers I rejected _even_ to put with the dogs of my flock. 

###### 2
Indeed, what _good was_ the strength of their hands to me? Vigor had perished from them. 

###### 3
From want and famine they are gaunt, Who gnaw the dry ground by night in destruction and desolation, 

###### 4
Who pluck mallow by the bushes, And whose food is the root of the broom tree. 

###### 5
They are driven from the community; They shout against them as _against_ a thief, 

###### 6
So that they dwell in the slopes of the valleys, In holes of the dust and of the rocks. 

###### 7
Among the bushes they cry out; Under the nettles they are gathered together. 

###### 8
Wicked fools, even those without a name, They were scourged from the land. 

###### 9
"And now I have become their _mocking_ song; I have even become a _taunting_ word to them. 

###### 10
They abhor me _and_ keep a distance from me, And they do not hold back from spitting at my face. 

###### 11
Because He has loosed His bowstring and afflicted me, They have thrust aside _their_ bridle before me. 

###### 12
On the right hand their brood arises; They thrust aside my feet and build up against me their ways to disaster. 

###### 13
They break up my path; They profit from my destruction; They have no helper. 

###### 14
As _through_ a wide breach they come, Amid the storm they roll on. 

###### 15
Terrors are turned against me; They pursue my nobility as the wind, And my _hope for_ salvation has passed away like a cloud. 

###### 16
"And now my soul is poured out within me; Days of affliction have seized me. 

###### 17
At night it pierces my bones within me, And my gnawing _pains_ take no rest. 

###### 18
By a great force my garment is distorted; It seizes me about as the collar of my tunic. 

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

###### 20
I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer me; I stand up, and You carefully consider _how to be_ against me. 

###### 21
You have become cruel to me; With the might of Your hand You hunted me down. 

###### 22
You lift me up to the wind _and_ cause me to ride; And You melt me away in a storm. 

###### 23
For I know that You will bring me to death And to the house of meeting for all living. 

###### 24
"Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out _his_ hand, Or, in his upheaval, is there a cry for help because of them? 

###### 25
Have I not wept for the one whose life is hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy? 

###### 26
When I hoped for good, then evil came; When I waited for light, then thick darkness came. 

###### 27
I am boiling within and cannot be silent; Days of affliction confront me. 

###### 28
I go about darkened _but_ not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly _and_ cry out for help. 

###### 29
I have become a brother to jackals And a companion of ostriches. 

###### 30
My skin turns black on me, And my bones burn with fever. 

###### 31
Therefore my harp is turned to mourning, And my flute to the sound of those who weep.