| 30.1 |
“But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs. |
| 30.2 |
Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished? |
| 30.3 |
They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation. |
| 30.4 |
They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom are their food. |
| 30.5 |
They are driven out from the midst of men. They cry after them as after a thief; |
| 30.6 |
So that they dwell in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks. |
| 30.7 |
Among the bushes they bray; and under the nettles they are gathered together. |
| 30.8 |
They are children of fools, yes, children of base men. They were flogged out of the land. |
| 30.9 |
“Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them. |
| 30.10 |
They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don’t hesitate to spit in my face. |
| 30.11 |
For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have thrown off restraint before me. |
| 30.12 |
On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, They cast up against me their ways of destruction. |
| 30.13 |
They mar my path, They set forward my calamity, without anyone’s help. |
| 30.14 |
As through a wide breach they come, in the midst of the ruin they roll themselves in. |
| 30.15 |
Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud. |
| 30.16 |
“Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold on me. |
| 30.17 |
In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest. |
| 30.18 |
By great force is my garment disfigured. It binds me about as the collar of my coat. |
| 30.19 |
He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes. |
| 30.20 |
I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me. |
| 30.21 |
You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me. |
| 30.22 |
You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm. |
| 30.23 |
For I know that you will bring me to death, To the house appointed for all living. |
| 30.24 |
“However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help? |
| 30.25 |
Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy? |
| 30.26 |
When I looked for good, then evil came; When I waited for light, there came darkness. |
| 30.27 |
My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest. Days of affliction have come on me. |
| 30.28 |
I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help. |
| 30.29 |
I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches. |
| 30.30 |
My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat. |
| 30.31 |
Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep. |
