Read the Bible

¹ "But now those younger than I ^(C1)laugh at me,
Whose fathers I rejected even to put with the dogs of my flock.

² "Indeed, what good was the strength of their hands to me?
Vigor had perished from them.

³ "From want and famine they are gaunt,
Who gnaw the dry ground by night in destruction and desolation,

⁴ Who pluck ^(F1)mallow by the bushes,
And whose food is the root of the broom tree.

⁵ "They are driven from the community;
They shout against them as against a thief,

⁶ So that they dwell in the slopes of the ^(F1)valleys,
In holes of the dust and of the rocks.

⁷ "Among the bushes they ^(F1)cry out;
Under the nettles they are gathered together.

⁸ "^(F1)Wicked fools, even ^(F2)those without a name,
They were scourged from the land.

⁹ "And now I have become their mocking ^(C1)song;
I have even become a ^(C2)taunting word to them.

¹⁰ "They abhor me and keep a distance from me,
And they do not ^(F1)hold back from ^(C1)spitting at my face.

¹¹ "Because ^(F1)He has loosed ^(F2)His ^(F3)bowstring and ^(C1)afflicted me,
They have thrust aside ^(C2)their bridle before me.

¹² "On the right hand their ^(F1)brood arises;
They ^(C1)thrust aside my feet ^(C2)and build up against me their ways to disaster.

¹³ "They ^(C1)break up my path;
They profit ^(F1)from my destruction;
They have no helper.

¹⁴ "As through a wide breach they come,
^(F1)Amid the storm they roll on.

¹⁵ "^(C1)Terrors are turned against me;
They pursue my nobility as the wind,
And my hope for salvation has passed away ^(C2)like a cloud.

¹⁶ "And now ^(C1)my soul is poured out ^(F1)within me;
Days of affliction have seized me.

¹⁷ "At night it pierces ^(C1)my bones ^(F1)within me,
And my gnawing pains take no rest.

¹⁸ "By a great force my garment is ^(C1)distorted;
It seizes me about as the collar of my tunic.

¹⁹ "He has cast me into the ^(C1)mire,
And I have become like dust and ashes.

²⁰ "I ^(C1)cry out to You for help, but You do not answer me;
I stand up, and You carefully consider how to be against me.

²¹ "You have ^(F1)become cruel to me;
With the might of Your hand You ^(C1)hunted me down.

²² "You ^(C1)lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride;
And You melt me away in a storm.

²³ "For I know that You ^(C1)will bring me to death
And to the ^(C2)house of meeting for all living.

²⁴ "Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,
Or, in his upheaval, is there a ^(C1)cry for help because of them?

²⁵ "Have I not ^(C1)wept for the ^(F1)one whose life is hard?
Was not my soul grieved for ^(C2)the needy?

²⁶ "When I ^(C1)hoped for good, then evil came;
When I waited for light, ^(C2)then thick darkness came.

²⁷ "^(F1)I am boiling ^(C1)within and cannot be silent;
Days of affliction confront me.

²⁸ "I go about ^(C1)darkened but not by the sun;
I stand up in the assembly and ^(C2)cry out for help.

²⁹ "I have become a brother to ^(C1)jackals
And a companion of ostriches.

³⁰ "My ^(C1)skin turns black ^(F1)on me,
And my ^(C2)bones burn with ^(F2)fever.

³¹ "Therefore my ^(C1)harp ^(F1)is turned to mourning,
And my flute to the sound of those who weep.