The Bible in Basic English BBE
Good News Translation GNT
1 But now those who are younger than I make sport of me; those whose fathers I would not have put with the dogs of my flocks.
1
But men younger than I am make fun of me now! Their fathers have always been so worthless that I wouldn't let them help my dogs guard sheep.
2 Of what use is the strength of their hands to me? all force is gone from them.
2
They were a bunch of worn-out men, too weak to do any work for me.
3 They are wasted for need of food, biting the dry earth; their only hope of life is in the waste land.
3
They were so poor and hungry that they would gnaw dry roots - at night, in wild, desolate places.
4 They are pulling off the salt leaves from the brushwood, and making a meal of roots.
4
They pulled up the plants of the desert and ate them, even the tasteless roots of the broom tree!
5 They are sent out from among their townsmen, men are crying after them as thieves
5
Everyone drove them away with shouts, as if they were shouting at thieves.
6 They have to get a resting-place in the hollows of the valleys, in holes of the earth and rocks.
6
They had to live in caves, in holes dug in the sides of cliffs.
7 They make noises like asses among the brushwood; they get together under the thorns.
7
Out in the wilds they howled like animals and huddled together under the bushes.
8 They are sons of shame, and of men without a name, who have been forced out of the land.
8
A worthless bunch of nameless nobodies! They were driven out of the land.
9 And now I have become their song, and I am a word of shame to them.
9
Now they come and laugh at me; I am nothing but a joke to them.
10 I am disgusting to them; they keep away from me, and put marks of shame on me.
10
They treat me with disgust; they think they are too good for me, and even come and spit in my face.
11 For he has made loose the cord of my bow, and put me to shame; he has sent down my flag to the earth before me.
11
Because God has made me weak and helpless, they turn against me with all their fury.
12 The lines of his men of war put themselves in order, and make high their ways of destruction against me:
12
This mob attacks me head-on; they send me running; they prepare their final assault.
13 They have made waste my roads, with a view to my destruction; his bowmen come round about me;
13
They cut off my escape and try to destroy me; and there is no one to stop them.
14 As through a wide broken place in the wall they come on, I am overturned by the shock of their attack.
14
They pour through the holes in my defenses and come crashing down on top of me;
15 Fears have come on me; my hope is gone like the wind, and my well-being like a cloud.
15
I am overcome with terror; my dignity is gone like a puff of wind, and my prosperity like a cloud.
16 But now my soul is turned to water in me, days of trouble overtake me:
16
Now I am about to die; there is no relief for my suffering.
17 The flesh is gone from my bones, and they give me no rest; there is no end to my pains.
17
At night my bones all ache; the pain that gnaws me never stops.
18 With great force he takes a grip of my clothing, pulling me by the neck of my coat.
18
God seizes me by my collar and twists my clothes out of shape.
19 Truly God has made me low, even to the earth, and I have become like dust.
19
He throws me down in the mud; I am no better than dirt.
20 You give no answer to my cry, and take no note of my prayer.
20
I call to you, O God, but you never answer; and when I pray, you pay no attention.
21 You have become cruel to me; the strength of your hand is hard on me.
21
You are treating me cruelly; you persecute me with all your power.
22 Lifting me up, you make me go on the wings of the wind; I am broken up by the storm.
22
You let the wind blow me away; you toss me about in a raging storm.
23 For I am certain that you will send me back to death, and to the meeting-place ordered for all living.
23
I know you are taking me off to my death, to the fate in store for everyone.
24 Has not my hand been stretched out in help to the poor? have I not been a saviour to him in his trouble?
24
Why do you attack a ruined man, one who can do nothing but beg for pity?
25 Have I not been weeping for the crushed? and was not my soul sad for him who was in need?
25
Didn't I weep with people in trouble and feel sorry for those in need?
26 For I was looking for good, and evil came; I was waiting for light, and it became dark.
26
I hoped for happiness and light, but trouble and darkness came instead.
27 My feelings are strongly moved, and give me no rest; days of trouble have overtaken me.
27
I am torn apart by worry and pain; I have had day after day of suffering.
28 I go about in dark clothing, uncomforted; I get up in the public place, crying out for help.
28
I go about in gloom, without any sunshine; I stand up in public and plead for help.
29 I have become a brother to the jackals, and go about in the company of ostriches.
29
My voice is as sad and lonely as the cries of a jackal or an ostrich.
30 My skin is black and dropping off me; and my bones are burning with the heat of my disease.
30
My skin has turned dark; I am burning with fever.
31 And my music has been turned to sorrow, and the sound of my pipe into the noise of weeping.
31
Where once I heard joyful music, now I hear only mourning and weeping.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.