1“But now they laugh at me, men who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. (Job 12:4; Job 32:4; Job 32:6)2What could I gain from the strength of their hands, men whose vigor is gone? (Job 5:26; Job 24:4)3Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation; (Job 30:17; Job 38:27; Jer 2:6; Zep 1:15)4they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes, and the roots of the broom tree for their food.[1]5They are driven out from human company; they shout after them as after a thief. (1Sa 26:19)6In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell, in holes of the earth and of the rocks. (1Sa 13:6; Jer 4:29)7Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they huddle together. (Job 6:5; Pr 24:31; Zep 2:9)8A senseless, a nameless brood, they have been whipped out of the land.9“And now I have become their song; I am a byword to them. (Job 17:6; Ps 69:12; La 3:14; La 3:63)10They abhor me; they keep aloof from me; they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me. (Nu 12:14; Job 17:6; Ps 88:8; Isa 50:6; Mt 26:67; Mt 27:30)11Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me, they have cast off restraint[2] in my presence.12On my right hand the rabble rise; they push away my feet; they cast up against me their ways of destruction. (Job 19:12; Ps 109:6)13They break up my path; they promote my calamity; they need no one to help them. (Job 6:2)14As through a wide breach they come; amid the crash they roll on. (Job 16:14)15Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud. (Job 7:9; Job 18:11; Isa 44:22)16“And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me. (1Sa 1:15; Job 10:1)17The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest. (Job 7:3; Job 30:3; Job 33:19)18With great force my garment is disfigured; it binds me about like the collar of my tunic. (1Sa 28:8; 1Ki 20:38)19God[3] has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. (Ge 18:27; Job 42:6)20I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me.21You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me. (Job 16:9; Isa 63:10; La 4:3)22You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm. (Job 27:21)23For I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living. (Job 19:25; Job 28:21)24“Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster cry for help?[4] (Ps 79:1; Jer 26:18; Mic 1:6; Mic 3:12)25Did not I weep for him whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy? (Ps 35:13; Ro 12:15)26But when I hoped for good, evil came, and when I waited for light, darkness came. (Job 10:21; Jer 8:15; Jer 14:19)27My inward parts are in turmoil and never still; days of affliction come to meet me. (2Sa 22:6; Ps 18:5)28I go about darkened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. (Ps 38:6; Ps 42:9; Ps 43:2; Pr 26:26)29I am a brother of jackals and a companion of ostriches. (Isa 13:21; Isa 34:13; Jer 50:39; Mic 1:8)30My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat. (Ps 102:3; Ps 119:83; La 4:8; La 5:10)31My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep. (Job 21:12; La 5:15)