1And now they laugh at me, those younger than me in days, whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.
2Even the strength of their hands, what would it be to me? Upon them ripe vigor has perished.
3In want and in famine they are gaunt, gnawing the dry land, in the gloom of devastation and desolation.
4They who pluck saltwort by the bush, and the root of broom shrubs is their bread.
5From the midst they are driven out; they shout at them as at a thief.
6In the gullies of the wadis they must dwell, in holes of the dust (aphar) and of the rocks.
7Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they are huddled together.
8Sons of a fool, indeed sons without a name, they were scourged out of the land.
9And now I have become their song, and I have become to them a byword.
10They abhor me, they keep far from me, and from my face they do not withhold spit.
11For He has loosed my cord and afflicted me, and they have cast off the bridle before me.
12On the right hand the rabble rise; they push aside my feet, and they cast up against me their ways of destruction.
13They break up my path; toward my calamity they profit; there is no helper against them.
14As through a wide breach they come; amid the ruin they roll themselves on.
15Terrors are turned upon me; it pursues my dignity like the spirit (ruach), and like a cloud my salvation (yeshuah) has passed away.
16And now my soul (nephesh) is poured out within me; days of affliction take hold of me.
17At night my bones are pierced from upon me, and my gnawing pains do not lie down.
18By great force my garment is disfigured; like the collar of my tunic it binds me about.
19He has cast me into the clay, and I have become like dust (aphar) and ashes.
20I cry out to You, and You do not answer me; I stand, and You gaze at me.
21You are turned cruel to me; with the might of Your hand You oppose me.
22You lift me up to the spirit (ruach), You make me ride upon it, and You dissolve my substance.
23For I know that You will bring me to death, and to the house of the appointed time (moed) for all the living (chai).
24Surely against a ruin one does not stretch out a hand, though in his calamity there is a cry for help.
25If I did not weep for him whose day was hard, if my soul (nephesh) did not grieve for the needy.
26For I hoped for good, but evil came; and I waited for light, but darkness came.
27My bowels boil and are not still; days of affliction have come to meet me.
28Blackened I go about, but not by the sun; I stand in the assembly and cry for help.
29I have become a brother to the great sea-creatures (tannin), and a companion to the daughters of the ostrich.
30My skin grows black upon me, and my bone burns from the heat.
31And my lyre has become for mourning, and my pipe to the voice of weepers.