My harp also is turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of weepers.

But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.

I am become a brother to jackals, and a companion of ostriches.

My skin is become black and falleth off me, and my bones are parched with heat.

They gather the salt-wort among the bushes, and the roots of the broom for their food.

For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and into the house of assemblage for all living.

And now I am their song, yea, I am their byword.

I cry unto thee, and thou answerest me not; I stand up, and thou lookest at me.

Terrors are turned against me; they pursue mine honour as the wind; and my welfare is passed away like a cloud.

Did not I weep for him whose days were hard? was not my soul grieved for the needy?

Withered up through want and hunger, they flee into waste places long since desolate and desert:

They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, yea, they spare not to spit in my face.

Yea, whereto should the strength of their hands profit me, men in whom vigour hath perished?

Sons of fools, and sons of nameless sires, they are driven out of the land.

And now my soul is poured out in me; days of affliction have taken hold upon me.

Thou art changed to a cruel one to me; with the strength of thy hand thou pursuest me.

For I expected good, and there came evil; and I waited for light, but there came darkness.

For he hath loosed my cord and afflicted me; so they cast off the bridle before me.

I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up, I cry in the congregation.

At my right hand rise the young brood; they push away my feet, and raise up against me their pernicious ways;

The night pierceth through my bones and detacheth them from me, and my gnawing pains take no rest:

They bray among the bushes; under the brambles they are gathered together:

To dwell in gloomy gorges, in caves of the earth and the rocks:

Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to be borne away, and dissolvest my substance.

He hath cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.

My bowels well up, and rest not; days of affliction have confronted me.

They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, without any to help them;

They are driven forth from among men they cry after them as after a thief --

By their great force they have become my raiment; they bind me about as the collar of my coat.

Indeed, no prayer availeth when he stretcheth out his hand: though they cry when he destroyeth.

They come in as through a wide breach: amid the confusion they roll themselves onward.