1 “ But now those who are younger than I make fun of me. I thought so little of their fathers that I did not want them with my sheep dogs.

2 Y es, what good could I get from the strength of their hands? Their strength was gone.

3 T heir bodies are thin and in need of food. At night they bite the dry ground in the waste land.

4 T hey pick plants that taste of salt among the bushes. And they eat the root of the broom bush.

5 T hey are driven away from people. Men call out against them as if they were robbers.

6 S o they live in valleys made by floods, in caves of the earth and of the rocks.

7 A mong the bushes they cry out. They gather together under the thistles.

8 T hey are fools and they have no name. They have been driven out of the land.

9 “ Now they make fun of me in song. They laugh at me.

10 T hey hate me and keep away from me, but they spit in my face.

11 B ecause God has made the string of my bow loose and has troubled me, they have thrown off their respect for me.

12 T heir bad group comes to my right. They push me away and trip my feet, and make ways to destroy me.

13 T hey break up my path. They make trouble for me, and no one stops them.

14 T hey come as if through a wide hole in the wall, and roll on with much noise.

15 F ears come upon me. They go after my honor like the wind. And my well-being has passed away like a cloud.

16 “ Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of trouble have taken hold of me.

17 N ight cuts into my bones with pain. The pain keeps on and takes no rest.

18 M y clothing is torn by a strong power. It pulls against me like the top of my coat.

19 G od has thrown 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 me. I stand up, and You turn away from me.

21 Y ou work against me. With the power of Your hand you make it hard for me.

22 Y ou lift me up to the wind and make it carry me. You throw me around in the storm.

23 F or I know that You will bring me to death, to the place for all the living.

24 “ Yet does not one in a destroyed place put out his hand, and in his trouble cry out for help?

25 H ave I not cried for the one whose life is hard? Was not my soul filled with sorrow for the poor?

26 W hen I expected good, then trouble came. When I waited for light, darkness came.

27 M y heart is troubled and does not rest. Days of trouble are before me.

28 I go about full of sorrow without comfort. I stand up where the people are gathered and cry out for help.

29 I have become a brother to wild dogs, and a friend of ostriches.

30 M y skin becomes black and falls from me. My bones burn because I am sick.

31 S o my harp is turned to sorrow, and my horn to the sound of crying.