Good News Translation GNT
Revised Standard Version RSV
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.
1
"But now they make sport of me, men who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.
2 They were a bunch of worn-out men, too weak to do any work for me.
2
What could I gain from the strength of their hands, men whose vigor is gone?
3 They were so poor and hungry that they would gnaw dry roots - at night, in wild, desolate places.
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Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry and desolate ground;
4 They pulled up the plants of the desert and ate them, even the tasteless roots of the broom tree!
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they pick mallow and the leaves of bushes, and to warm themselves the roots of the broom.
5 Everyone drove them away with shouts, as if they were shouting at thieves.
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They are driven out from among men; they shout after them as after a thief.
6 They had to live in caves, in holes dug in the sides of cliffs.
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In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell, in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
7 Out in the wilds they howled like animals and huddled together under the bushes.
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Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they huddle together.
8 A worthless bunch of nameless nobodies! They were driven out of the land.
8
A senseless, a disreputable brood, they have been whipped out of the land.
9 Now they come and laugh at me; I am nothing but a joke to them.
9
"And now I have become their song, I am a byword to them.
10 They treat me with disgust; they think they are too good for me, and even come and spit in my face.
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They abhor me, they keep aloof from me; they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.
11 Because God has made me weak and helpless, they turn against me with all their fury.
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Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me, they have cast off restraint in my presence.
12 This mob attacks me head-on; they send me running; they prepare their final assault.
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On my right hand the rabble rise, they drive me forth, they cast up against me their ways of destruction.
13 They cut off my escape and try to destroy me; and there is no one to stop them.
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They break up my path, they promote my calamity; no one restrains them.
14 They pour through the holes in my defenses and come crashing down on top of me;
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As through a wide breach they come; amid the crash they roll on.
15 I am overcome with terror; my dignity is gone like a puff of wind, and my prosperity like a cloud.
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Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.
16 Now I am about to die; there is no relief for my suffering.
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"And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me.
17 At night my bones all ache; the pain that gnaws me never stops.
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The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.
18 God seizes me by my collar and twists my clothes out of shape.
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With violence it seizes my garment; it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
19 He throws me down in the mud; I am no better than dirt.
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God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.
20 I call to you, O God, but you never answer; and when I pray, you pay no attention.
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I cry to thee and thou dost not answer me; I stand, and thou dost not heed me.
21 You are treating me cruelly; you persecute me with all your power.
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Thou hast turned cruel to me; with the might of thy hand thou dost persecute me.
22 You let the wind blow me away; you toss me about in a raging storm.
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Thou liftest me up on the wind, thou makest me ride on it, and thou tossest me about in the roar of the storm.
23 I know you are taking me off to my death, to the fate in store for everyone.
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Yea, I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.
24 Why do you attack a ruined man, one who can do nothing but beg for pity?
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"Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster cry for help?
25 Didn't I weep with people in trouble and feel sorry for those in need?
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Did not I weep for him whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the poor?
26 I hoped for happiness and light, but trouble and darkness came instead.
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But when I looked for good, evil came; and when I waited for light, darkness came.
27 I am torn apart by worry and pain; I have had day after day of suffering.
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My heart is in turmoil, and is never still; days of affliction come to meet me.
28 I go about in gloom, without any sunshine; I stand up in public and plead for help.
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I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
29 My voice is as sad and lonely as the cries of a jackal or an ostrich.
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I am a brother of jackals, and a companion of ostriches.
30 My skin has turned dark; I am burning with fever.
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My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat.
31 Where once I heard joyful music, now I hear only mourning and weeping.
31
My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.