1 "But now [those] younger than I, as far as days, laugh at me, whose fathers I rejected for setting with the dogs of my sheep and goats.
2 Moreover, {what use to me is the strength of their hands}? With them, vigor is destroyed.
3 Through want and through barren hunger they are gnawing [in the] dry region [in the] darkness of desolation and waste.
4 They are picking salt herbs, the leaves of bushes, and [the] roots of broom trees to warm themselves.
5 They were driven out from fellow people; they shout at them as [at] a thief,
6 {so that they dwell} [in] holes of [the] ground and [in the] rocks.
7 They bray among [the] bushes; they are gathered under [the] nettles.
8 {A senseless crowd}, yes, {a disreputable brood}, they were cast out from the land.
9 "But now I am their mocking song, and I have become a byword for them.
10 They abhor me; they keep aloof from me, and they do not withhold spit from my face
11 because he has loosened his bowstring and humbled me, and they have thrown off restraint {in my presence}.
12 On [the] right hand the brood rises up; {they put me to flight}, and they build up their {siege ramps} against me.
13 They destroy my path; they promote my destruction; they have no helper.
14 As [through] a wide breach they come; amid a crash they rush on.
15 Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as [by] the wind, and my hope of deliverance passed by like a cloud.
16 "And now my life is poured out onto me; days of misery have taken hold of me.
17 {At night I am in great pain}; my pains do not take a rest.
18 He seizes my clothing with {great power}; he grasps me by my tunic's collar.
19 He has cast me into the dirt, and I have become like dust and ashes.
20 I cry to you for help, but you do not answer me; I stand, and you [merely] look at me.
21 You have turned cruel to me; you persecute me with your hand's might.
22 You lift me up to [the] wind--you make me ride [it], and you toss me about [in] the storm.
23 Indeed, I know [that] you will bring me to death and [to the] house of assembly for all [the] living.
24 "Surely someone must not send a hand against [the] needy when, in his misfortune, [there is] a cry of help for them.
25 Have I not wept for {the unfortunate}, [and] grieved myself over the poor?
26 Indeed, I hoped for good, but evil came, and I waited for light, but darkness came.
27 My bowels are in turmoil, and they are not still; days of misery come to confront me.
28 I go [about] in mourning garb, [but] not in sunlight; I stand up in the assembly, [and] I cry for help.
29 I am a companion for [the] jackals and a companion for {ostriches}.
30 My skin turns black on me, and my bones burn with heat.
31 So my lyre came to be [used] for mourning, and my flute [for the] voice of [those who] weep.