Moreover, why did I need the strength of their hands in those days they were wicked, and they were useless, for trouble came because of them.

old age Heb. כָּלַח, old age.

Because of want and because of hunger they were in solitude.

they would flee to desolation For in his days, they would drive them from civilization to go in darkness.

darkness of waste and desolation broine in Old French, obscurity.

They pluck salt-wort on shrubs When they were in the deserts, they would pluck for themselves salt-wort [that grew] on the trees of the forests and eat. salt-wort Heb. מלוח. It is the name of an herb. In Aramaic (Pes. 114a), it is called קַקוּלִין and in the language of the Mishnah מַלוּחִים (malves in French), mallows, as we learned in (Kiddushin 66a): “They brought up mallows on golden tables.”

shrubs a tree, like (Gen. 21:15), “under one of the shrubs (השיחים).”

from the midst From the midst of the city they were driven.

in the crevices of the valleys There is a salty land that splits, where they would lie in the holes in the earth and the holes in the crevices of the rocks.

and rocks Heb. וכפים, the Aramaic translation of סלעים, rocks. (Another explanation:) in the crevice of the streams That is the crevice that the stream makes around itself.

under the nettles they gather (Orties in French), nettles. They would gather, as in (Isa. 14:1), “and join (ונספחו) the house of Jacob.”

were broken (in my days) from the land for I would humble them. [נִכְאוּ is] an expression of (Isa. 66:2), “of crushed spirit (נכה רוח).”

For He untied my bowstring He untied the string of my bow (that I said above that my bow would become stronger); i.e., He weakened my strength—He Who has the power to do so.

and they have cast off the bridle My bridle, with which they were bridled to me—they cast it off before me because they no longer fear me.

On my right on my right, stand “little sprouts” as [with] any other simple person, because I am no longer so esteemed in their sight [that they] subordinate themselves before Me.

they push away my feet If the place is crowded, they push me away.

and they cast up against me their ways of destruction Any shameful way [i.e., act] that they have to do, they make their way before me or beside me [to perform it] and they have no fear.

They break up my path Heb. נתסוּ. [My] good [path] and do not care for it. נתסוּ is like נתצוּ the “sammech” replacing the “zaddi.”

they serve to increase my calamity they continue to provoke me.

As [through] a wide breach in a fence, through which everyone comes and passes through, so they come together against me to embarrass me.

under darkness they roll i.e., they come rolling along in secret until they reach me, to provoke me, so that I should not be able to escape from them.

turned upon me Heb. הָהְפַךְ, [equivalent to] נֶהְפַּךְ.

Terrors demons.

as a spirit An evil [spirit].

my nobility The noble spirit that rested upon me from the beginning.

And now to this trouble my soul pours out like a man whose spirit is troubled, for...

days of affliction in which I am [now] seize me and coerce me to pour out my soul.

are picked off Heb. נקר, like (Num. 16:14), “will you put out (תנקר) the eyes of those people?” (forer in French, to bore). The worms pick my flesh off my bones.

my sinews Heb. עֹרְקַי. My sinews have no rest. Sinew in Arabic is “orek.” So did Dunash explain it (Teshuvoth Dunash p.85). Another explanation: עֹרְקַי, my pursuers who cause me to flee. (Machbereth Menachem p. 139)

is my garment changed My “garment” changes, layer after layer. When a person removes his garments and puts on other garments different from the first ones, he calls these בִּגְדֵי חֹפֶשׁ, like (I Kings 22:30), “I will disguise myself (התחפש) and go into battle.” This is translated into Aramaic by the word אשתני, I will change.

like the opening of my shirt it girds me Like the opening of my shirt, which girds and encompasses my neck, so do my garments gird me all around.

It directed me to the mud These boils directed me and taught me to sit in the mud, as we said above (2:8). “and he sat down in the ashes.” Another explanation: הוֹרַנִי means: it cast me, an expression of (Exod. 15:4), “He cast (ירה) into the sea.”

and I was compared Was likened. And in the Midrash of Rabbi Tanchuma (Buber, Vayishlach 8): Said Rabbi Berechiah, “Transpose the verse.” I was compared to Abraham in my righteousness, who called himself dust and ashes (Gen.18:27), and He judges me like the wicked of the Generation of the Dispersion (who rebelled against Him by building the tower), concerning whom it is written (Gen. 11:3): “and the mortar served them as clay.”

I stood to see, to remain silent, and to understand, as in (Neh. 8:5), “And when he opened [it], all the people stood,” and no longer replied.

and You ponder me You think about me to change my plagues.

You lift me up to the spirit of the demons.

You cause me to ride [on it], and weakness melts me away Weakness and feebleness of strength melted me away.

and weakness melts me away Heb. ותמגגני, a feminine form, the subject of which is תֻּשִיָה, and this “tav” is not like the “tav” of “You lift me up (תשאני).”

For I knew For I knew that You would return me to death, a place which is a meeting place for all living, namely the grave.

But not with destruction was the Judge accustomed to stretch forth His hand; with destruction, like (Micah 1:6), “into a heap (לעי) in the field.”

if with His misfortune If He would send a misfortune, which is a breach upon His creatures.

He would dandle them He would dandle them with partial consolations. And so did our Sages (Pesikta d’Rav Kahana p. 1 27a) explain it: The Holy One, blessed be He, does not smite a nation and leave it desolate, but He brings misfortune to one and dandles it with its fellow that suffered already, and it is consoled thereby. He brought misfortune upon Assyria and dandled it with Egypt, as it is said (Nahum 3:8): “Are you better than the great No- Amon?” He brought misfortune upon Egypt and dandled them with Assyria, as it is said (Ezek. 31: 3): “Behold Assyria was [a cedar] in the Lebanon.” The words להן שוע may also be interpreted as: Prayer and supplication avail them.

...whether I did not weep for one who had a difficult time [You] know and recognize whether I was not compassionate and [did not] weep for the poor, who had difficult times, and [whether] my soul [did not] grieve for the needy, that this befell me because of all these.

For I hoped for good etc. That is to say that this reward was fit for me.

and did not become silent They cannot be silent.

without the sun The sun did not gaze upon me, yet I am blackened.

I was a brother to jackals etc. Jackals and ostriches spend all their days wailing.

dried out Heb. חרה, an expression of a thing that is burned and dried through the heat of the fire, like (Jer. 6:29), “The bellows is heated (נחר)”; (Ezek. 15:4), “and the middle of it is burned (נחר).”