| | 1 | 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. | |
| | 2 | Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished? | |
| | 3 | For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste. | |
| | 4 | Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat. | |
| | 5 | They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;) | |
| | 6 | To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks. | |
| | 7 | Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together. | |
| | 8 | They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth. | |
| | 9 | 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. | |
| | 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. | |
