Read the Bible

¹ "But now those younger than I, as far as days, laugh at me,
whose fathers I rejected for setting with the dogs of my sheep and goats.
² Moreover, what use to me is the strength of their hands?^[a]
With them, vigor is destroyed.
³ Through want and through barren hunger
they are gnawing in the dry region in the darkness of desolation and waste.
⁴ They are picking salt herbs, the leaves of bushes,
and the roots of broom trees to warm themselves.
⁵ They were driven out from fellow people;
they shout at them as at a^[b] thief,
⁶ so that they dwell^[c]
in holes of the ground and in the rocks.
⁷ They bray among the bushes;
they are gathered under the nettles.
⁸ A senseless crowd,^[d] yes, a disreputable brood,^[e]
they were cast out from the land.
⁹ "But now I am their mocking song,
and I have become a byword for them.
¹⁰ They abhor me; they keep aloof from me,
and they do not withhold spit from my face
¹¹ because he has loosened his bowstring and humbled me,
and they have thrown off restraint in my presence.^[f]
12 On the right hand the brood rises^[g] up;
they put me to flight,^[h]
and they build up their siege ramps^[i] against me.
¹³ They destroy my path;
they promote my destruction;
they have no helper.
¹⁴ As through a wide breach they come;
amid a crash they rush on.
¹⁵ Terrors are turned upon me;
my honor is pursued as by the wind,
and my hope of deliverance passed by like a cloud.
¹⁶ "And now my life is poured out onto me;
days of misery have taken hold of me.
¹⁷ At night I am in great pain;^[j]
my pains do not take a rest.
¹⁸ He seizes my clothing with great power;^[k]
he grasps me by my tunic's collar.
¹⁹ He has cast me into the dirt,
and I have become like dust^[l] and ashes.
²⁰ I cry to you for help, but^[m] you do not answer me;
I stand, and you merely look at me.
²¹ You have turned cruel to me;
you persecute me with your hand's might.
²² You lift me up to the wind—you make me ride it,
and you toss me about in the storm.
²³ Indeed, I know that you will bring me to death
and to the house of assembly for all the living.
²⁴ "Surely someone must not send a hand against the needy
when, in his misfortune, there is a cry of help for them.
²⁵ Have I not wept for the unfortunate,^[n]
and grieved myself over the poor?
²⁶ Indeed, I hoped for good, but evil came,
and I waited for light, but darkness came.
²⁷ My bowels are in turmoil, and they are not still;
days of misery come to confront me.
²⁸ I go about in mourning garb, but not in sunlight;
I stand up in the assembly, and I cry for help.
²⁹ I am a companion for the jackals
and a companion for ostriches.^[o]
30 My skin turns black on me,
and my bones burn with heat.
³¹ So^[p] my lyre came to be used for mourning,
and my flute for the voice of those who weep.