| 1 ¶ But now they that are younger1 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;2 fleeing into the wilderness in3 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 caves4 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 base5 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, and6 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 soul7 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 become8 cruel to me: with thy9 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.10
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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,11 though they cry in his destruction.
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| 25 Did not I weep for him that was in trouble12? 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.13
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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.
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