30 But now they that are younger than I have me in derision,
Whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.
² Yea, the strength of their hands, whereto should it profit me?
Men in whom ^[a]ripe age is perished.
³ They are gaunt with want and famine;
^[b]They gnaw the dry ground, ^[c]in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.
⁴ They pluck salt-wort by the bushes;
And the roots of the broom are ^[d]their food.
⁵ They are driven forth from the midst of men;
They cry after them as after a thief;
⁶ So that they dwell in frightful valleys,
In holes of the earth and of the rocks.
⁷ Among the bushes they bray;
Under the ^[e]nettles they ^[f]are gathered together.
⁸ They are children of fools, yea, children of ^[g]base men;
They ^[h]were scourged out of the land.

⁹ And now I am become their song,
Yea, I am a byword unto them.
¹⁰ They abhor me, they stand aloof from me,
And spare not to spit ^[i]in my face.
¹¹ For he hath loosed ^[j]his cord, and afflicted me;
And they have cast off the bridle before me.
¹² Upon my right hand rise the ^[k]rabble;
They thrust aside my feet,
And they cast up against me their ways of destruction.
¹³ They ^[l]mar my path,
They set forward my calamity,
Even men that have no helper.
^14 [m]As through a wide breach they come:
In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me.
¹⁵ Terrors are turned upon me;
^[n]They chase ^[o]mine honor as the wind;
And my welfare is passed away as a cloud.

¹⁶ And now my soul is poured out ^[p]within me;
Days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
¹⁷ In the night season my bones are ^[q]pierced ^[r]in me,
And ^[s]the pains that gnaw me take no rest.
¹⁸ By God’s great force is my garment disfigured;
It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.
¹⁹ He hath cast me into the mire,
And I am become like dust and ashes.
²⁰ I cry unto thee, and thou dost not answer me:
I stand up, and thou gazest at me.
²¹ Thou art turned to be cruel to me;
With the might of thy hand thou persecutest me.
²² Thou liftest me up to the wind, thou causest me to ride upon it;
And thou dissolvest me in the storm.
²³ For I know that thou wilt bring me to death,
And to ^[t]the house appointed for all living.

²⁴ Howbeit doth not one stretch out the hand in his fall?
Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
²⁵ Did not I weep for him that was in trouble?
Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
²⁶ When I looked for good, then evil came;
And when I waited for light, there came darkness.
²⁷ My heart is troubled, and resteth not;
Days of affliction are come upon me.
²⁸ I go ^[u]mourning without the sun:
I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
²⁹ I am a brother to jackals,
And a companion to ostriches.
³⁰ My skin is black, and falleth from me,
And my bones are burned with heat.
³¹ Therefore is my harp turned to mourning,
And my pipe into the voice of them that weep.