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¹ And now, laughed at me, Have the younger in days than I, Whose fathers I have loathed to set With the dogs of my flock.² Also -- the power of their hands, why [is it] to me? On them hath old age perished.³ With want and with famine gloomy, Those fleeing to a dry place, Formerly a desolation and waste,⁴ Those cropping mallows near a shrub, And broom-roots [is] their food.⁵ From the midst they are cast out, (They shout against them as a thief),⁶ In a frightful place of valleys to dwell, Holes of earth and clefts.⁷ Among shrubs they do groan, Under nettles they are gathered together.⁸ Sons of folly -- even sons without name, They have been smitten from the land.⁹ And now, their song I have been, And I am to them for a byword.¹⁰ They have abominated me, They have kept far from me, And from before me have not spared to spit.¹¹ Because His cord He loosed and afflicteth me, And the bridle from before me, They have cast away.¹² On the right hand doth a brood arise, My feet they have cast away, And they raise up against me, Their paths of calamity.¹³ They have broken down my path, By my calamity they profit, `He hath no helper.'¹⁴ As a wide breach they come, Under the desolation have rolled themselves.

¹⁵ He hath turned against me terrors, It pursueth as the wind mine abundance, And as a thick cloud, Hath my safety passed away.¹⁶ And now, in me my soul poureth itself out, Seize me do days of affliction.¹⁷ At night my bone hath been pierced in me, And mine eyelids do not lie down.¹⁸ By the abundance of power, Is my clothing changed, As the mouth of my coat it doth gird me.¹⁹ Casting me into mire, And I am become like dust and ashes.²⁰ I cry unto Thee, And Thou dost not answer me, I have stood, and Thou dost consider me.²¹ Thou art turned to be fierce to me, With the strength of Thy hand, Thou oppresest me.²² Thou dost lift me up, On the wind Thou dost cause me to ride, And Thou meltest -- Thou levellest me.²³ For I have known To death Thou dost bring me back, And [to] the house appointed for all living.²⁴ Surely not against the heap Doth He send forth the hand, Though in its ruin they have safety.²⁵ Did not I weep for him whose day is hard? Grieved hath my soul for the needy.²⁶ When good I expected, then cometh evil, And I wait for light, and darkness cometh.²⁷ My bowels have boiled, and have not ceased, Gone before me have days of affliction.²⁸ Mourning I have gone without the sun, I have risen, in an assembly I cry.²⁹ A brother I have been to dragons, And a companion to daughters of the ostrich.³⁰ My skin hath been black upon me, And my bone hath burned from heat,³¹ And my harp doth become mourning, And my organ the sound of weeping.