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World English Bible WEB
1 “But now they mock me, men younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
1 "But now those who are younger than I, have me in derision, Whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
2 Of what use was the strength of their hands to me, since their vigor had gone from them?
2 Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, Men in whom ripe age has perished?
3 Haggard from want and hunger, they roamed the parched land in desolate wastelands at night.
3 They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.
4 In the brush they gathered salt herbs, and their food was the root of the broom bush.
4 They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom are their food.
5 They were banished from human society, shouted at as if they were thieves.
5 They are driven forth from the midst of men; They cry after them as after a thief;
6 They were forced to live in the dry stream beds, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
6 So that they dwell in frightful valleys, And in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
7 They brayed among the bushes and huddled in the undergrowth.
7 Among the bushes they bray; And under the nettles they are gathered together.
8 A base and nameless brood, they were driven out of the land.
8 They are children of fools, yes, children of base men. They were flogged out of the land.
9 “And now those young men mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.
9 "Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.
10 They detest me and keep their distance; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
10 They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, And don't hesitate to spit in my face.
11 Now that God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they throw off restraint in my presence.
11 For he has loosed his cord, and afflicted me; And they have thrown off restraint before me.
12 On my right the tribe attacks; they lay snares for my feet, they build their siege ramps against me.
12 On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, They cast up against me their ways of destruction.
13 They break up my road; they succeed in destroying me. ‘No one can help him,’ they say.
13 They mar my path, They set forward my calamity, Without anyone's help.
14 They advance as through a gaping breach; amid the ruins they come rolling in.
14 As through a wide breach they come, In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves in.
15 Terrors overwhelm me; my dignity is driven away as by the wind, my safety vanishes like a cloud.
15 Terrors are turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud.
16 “And now my life ebbs away; days of suffering grip me.
16 "Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold on me.
17 Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never rest.
17 In the night season my bones are pierced in me, And the pains that gnaw me take no rest.
18 In his great power God becomes like clothing to me ; he binds me like the neck of my garment.
18 By great force is my garment disfigured. It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
19 He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes.
19 He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.
20 “I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me.
20 I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me.
21 You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me.
21 You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me.
22 You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm.
22 You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm.
23 I know you will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
23 For I know that you will bring me to death, To the house appointed for all living.
24 “Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man when he cries for help in his distress.
24 "However doesn't one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
25 Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor?
25 Didn't I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn't my soul grieved for the needy?
26 Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness.
26 When I looked for good, then evil came; When I waited for light, there came darkness.
27 The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me.
27 My heart is troubled, and doesn't rest. Days of affliction have come on me.
28 I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
28 I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
29 I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of owls.
29 I am a brother to jackals, And a companion to ostriches.
30 My skin grows black and peels; my body burns with fever.
30 My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.
31 My lyre is tuned to mourning, and my pipe to the sound of wailing.
31 Therefore is my harp turned to mourning, And my pipe into the voice of those who weep.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.
The World English Bible is in the public domain.