But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.

And now I am laughed at by those younger than I in days, whose fathers I would despise to place among the sheep dogs of my flock.

Indeed what could I gain from the strength of their hands, in whom the stock has perished?

Of what avail to me, too, was the strength of their hands? [(They were wicked and everything they did miscarried.)] Old age was lost upon them.

For want and famine they are solitary; they flee into the wilderness, into a gloomy waste and desolation.

In want and hunger they sat solitary. They were driven to the wasteland, [to] night, darkness, and desolation.

They cut up mallows by the bushes, and roots of broom for warmth.

They picked salted grass. The leaves of trees and the root of the broom plant was their bread.

They are driven forth from among men, (they cry after them as after a thief;)

They were driven from the midst [of the city] — They were shouted at like thieves —

to dwell in the clefts of the wadis, in holes of the earth, and in the rocks.

to dwell in the rifts of the valleys, in the clefts of the earth and the rocks.

Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they huddle together.

They brayed among the trees; they gathered under the thorns.

They are children of churls, yea, children of base men: they are whipped out of the land.

The sons of the despised, the sons of the nameless, the broken from the earth [(whom I scorned)] —

And now I am their song, yea, I am their byword.

And now I have become their song; I have become a byword to them.

They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.

They have despised me. They have removed themselves from me, and they have not spared spittle from my face.

Because he has loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also cast off restraint before me.

They have undone my bow-string [i.e., my strength] and oppressed me. They have cast away the reins [(by which they were tethered)] from me.

Upon my right hand rise the youthful rabble; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.

The young rabble stand on my right hand. They shove my feet aside [(to make place for themselves)].

They mar my path, they further my calamity; they have no need for help.

They have ravaged my path [(of good)]. To taunt me causelessly was their joy.

They come upon me as through a wide breach: amid the crash they roll on.

As through a wide breach they have come [(to shame me)]. Under [cover of] darkness they have emerged [against me].

Terrors are turned upon me: my dignity is pursued as by the wind: and my welfare passes away as a cloud.

Terrors [(demons)] have turned upon me. They pursue my repose like evil spirits and my salvation passes like a cloud.

And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me.

And now [(in my affliction)] my soul spills out upon me. Days of affliction have gripped me.

My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.

At night my bones are picked off me and my veins have no rest.

By the great force of my disease is my skin changed: it binds me about as the collar of my coat.

In the intensity [of my illness] my "clothing" [i.e., my encrustation] renews itself. As my collar girds [my neck], so does it [my encrustation] gird me.

He has cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.

It [(my affliction)] has taught me to [take refuge in] the mud [viz. 2:8]. I have become like dust and ashes.

I cry to Thee, and Thou dost not answer me: I stand up, dost Thou then regard me?

When I scream to You, You do not answer me. When I stand [in silence] You study me [(to renew my afflictions)].

Thou art become cruel to me: with Thy strong hand Thou opposest Thyself against me.

You have turned cruel against me. With the might of Your hand You have brandished hatred against me.

Thou liftest me up to the wind; Thou causest me to ride upon it, and the roar of the storm dissolves me.

You have born me aloft to the wind [i.e., to demons]. Weakness overwhelms me and melts me.

For I know that Thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.

For I knew that You would return me unto death, [(to the grave)] the destined abode of all the living.

Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand? and in his disaster cry for help?

But not in destruction [(unrelieved by consolation)] would He [i.e., was it His wont] to send forth [His] hand. If He broke, He would [also] salve.

Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?

Did I not cry for him of the luckless day? Did my soul [not] despond over the poor

But when I looked for good, then evil came: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.

that I should hope for good and be met with evil? [that I should hope] for light and be met with darkness?

My bowels are in turmoil, and they do not rest: days of affliction have came upon me.

My innards boil and cannot be stilled. Days of affliction have accosted me.

I go mourning without the sun: I stand up, and I cry in the congregation.

I have gone about blackened, but not with the sun. I have risen in the crowd and screamed.

I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to owls.

I have been a brother [(in wailing)] to jackals and a companion to ostriches.

My skin hangs down black from me, and my bones are burned with heat.

My skin has charred off me, and my bones are dried with parching.

Therefore my lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.

My lyre is turned to lamentation and my pipe to the voice of mourners.