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