Chapter 30

  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.  

--

  Yes, to what might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age had perished?  

--

  For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.  

--

  Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their food.  

--

  They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them, as after a thief;)  

--

  To dwell in the clefts of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.  

--

  Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were collected.  

--

  They were children of fools, yes, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.  

--

  And now I am their song, yes, I am their by-word.  

--

  They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.  

--

  Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me.  

--

  Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.  

--

  They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper.  

--

  They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.  

--

  Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.  

--

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

--

  My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.  

--

  By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.  

--

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

--

  I cry to thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not.  

--

  Thou hast become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me.  

--

  Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance.  

--

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

--

  Yet he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.  

--

  Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?  

--

  When I looked for good, then evil came: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.  

--

  My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction came upon me.  

--

  I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.  

--

  I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.  

--

  My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.  

--

  My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.  

--