30:1 "But now they laugh at me, men who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. 30:2 What could I gain from the strength of their hands, men whose vigor is gone 30:3 Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation; 30:4 they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes, and the roots of the broom tree for their food. 30:5 They are driven out from human company; they shout after them as after a thief. 30:6 In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell, in holes of the earth and of the rocks. 30:7 Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they huddle together. 30:8 A senseless, a nameless brood, they have been whipped out of the land. 30:9 "And now I have become their song; I am a byword to them. 30:10 They abhor me; they keep aloof from me; they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me. 30:11 Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me, they have cast off restraint in my presence. 30:12 On my right hand the rabble rise; they push away my feet; they cast up against me their ways of destruction. 30:13 They break up my path; they promote my calamity; they need no one to help them. 30:14 As through a wide breach they come; amid the crash they roll on. 30:15 Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud. 30:16 "And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me. 30:17 The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest. 30:18 With great force my garment is disfigured; it binds me about like the collar of my tunic. 30:19 God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. 30:20 I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me. 30:21 You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me. 30:22 You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm. 30:23 For I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living. 30:24 "Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster cry for help 30:25 Did not I weep for him whose day was hard Was not my soul grieved for the needy 30:26 But when I hoped for good, evil came, and when I waited for light, darkness came. 30:27 My inward parts are in turmoil and never still; days of affliction come to meet me. 30:28 I go about darkened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. 30:29 I am a brother of jackals and a companion of ostriches. 30:30 My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat. 30:31 My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.