30 “Now they laugh at me
—Men younger than I am,
Whose fathers I would have refused
To put with the dogs that guarded my flock.
2 Of what use was the power of their hands to me?
Their vigor has perished.
3 They are worn out from want and hunger;
They gnaw at the parched ground
That was already ruined and desolated.
4 They gather the salt herb from the bushes;
Their food is the root of broom trees.
5 They are driven out of the community;
People shout at them as they would at a thief.
6 They live on the slopes of ravines,
In holes in the ground and in the rocks.
7 From the bushes they cry out
And huddle together among the nettles.
8 As sons of the senseless and the nameless ones,
They have been driven out of the land.
9 But now they mock me even in their songs;
I have become an object of scorn to them.
10 They detest me and keep their distance from me;
They do not hesitate to spit in my face.
11 Because Al {pre. Ahl} has disarmed me and humbled me,
They throw off all restraint in my presence.
12 On my right they rise up like a mob;
They put me to flight
And put up barriers of destruction in my path.
13 They tear up my roadways
And make my calamity worse,
14 They come as if through a wide breach in the wall;
They roll in amid the devastation.
15 Terror overwhelms me;
My dignity is driven away like the wind,
And my salvation vanishes like a cloud.
Days of affliction take hold of me.
17 Aching pierces my bones at night;
The gnawing pain never stops.
18 With great force my garment is disfigured;
Like the collar of my garment, it chokes me.
19 Al {pre. Ahl} has thrown me down into the mud;
I am reduced to dust and ashes.
20 I cry to you for help, but you do not answer me;
I stand up, but you just look at me.
21 You have cruelly turned against me;
With the full might of your hand, you assault me.
22 You pick me up and carry me off with the wind;
Then you toss me about in the storm.
23 For I know that you will bring me down to death,
To the house where everyone living will meet.
24 But no one would strike at a broken man
As he cries for help during his time of disaster.
25 Have I not wept for those who have fallen on hard times?
Have I not grieved for the poor?
26 Although I hoped for good, bad came;
I expected the light, but darkness came.
27 The churning inside me did not stop;
Days of affliction confronted me.
28 I walk about gloomy; there is no sunlight.
In the assembly, I rise and cry for help.
29 I have become a brother to jackals
And a companion to the daughters of the ostrich.
30 My skin has blackened and fallen off;
31 My harp is used only for mourning,
And my flute for the sound of weeping.