1: But now they that are younger than I have me in derision,
whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my
flock. |
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2: Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in
whom old age was perished? |
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3:
For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the
wilderness in former time desolate and waste. |
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4: Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their
meat. |
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5: They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them
as after a thief;) |
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6: To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, in caves of the earth,
and in the rocks. |
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7: Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were
gathered together. |
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8: They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they
were viler than the earth. |
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9: And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword. |
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10: They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit
in my face. |
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11: Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have
also let loose the bridle before me. |
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12: Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet,
and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction. |
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13: They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no
helper. |
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14: They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the
desolation they rolled themselves upon me. |
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15: Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind:
and my welfare passeth away as a cloud. |
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16: And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction
have taken hold upon me. |
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17: My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews
take no rest. |
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18: By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it
bindeth me about as the collar of my coat. |
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19: He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and
ashes. |
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20: I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and
thou regardest me not. |
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21: Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou
opposest thyself against me. |
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22: Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon
it, and dissolvest my substance. |
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23: For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house
appointed for all living. |
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24: Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though
they cry in his destruction. |
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25: Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul
grieved for the poor? |
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26: When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I
waited for light, there came darkness. |
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27: My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction
prevented me. |
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28: I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in
the congregation. |
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29: I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
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30: My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.
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31: My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the
voice of them that weep. |