“My body is clothed with worms and a crust of dust;
My skin is hardened [and broken and loathsome], and [breaks out and] runs.

I am afraid of all my pains and worries [yet to come];
I know that You will not acquit me and leave me unpunished.

“I am a joke to my friends;
I, one whom God answered when he called upon Him—
A just and blameless man is a joke [and laughed to scorn].

And he has lived in desolate [God-forsaken] cities,
In houses which no one should inhabit,
Which were destined to become heaps [of ruins];

“Why do the wicked still live,
Become old, and become mighty in power?

“The murderer rises at dawn;
He kills the poor and the needy,
And at night he becomes a thief.

“Behold, all of you have seen it;
Why then do you act vainly and foolishly [cherishing worthless concepts]?

“And now I have become [the subject of] their taunting;
Yes, I am a byword and a laughingstock to them.

“God has cast me into the mire [a swampland of crisis],
And I have become [worthless] like dust and ashes.

“You have become harsh and cruel to me;
With the might of Your hand You [keep me alive only to] persecute me.

“Let his flesh be restored and become fresher than in youth;
Let him return to the days of his youthful strength.

“Their young ones become strong, they grow up in the open field;
They leave and do not return to them.