| Chapter 30 |
1 |
But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. |
2 |
Yea, whereto should the strength of their hands profit me, men in whom vigour hath perished? |
3 |
Withered up through want and hunger, they flee into waste places long since desolate and desert: |
4 |
They gather the salt-wort among the bushes, and the roots of the broom for their food. |
5 |
They are driven forth from among men -- they cry after them as after a thief -- |
6 |
To dwell in gloomy gorges, in caves of the earth and the rocks: |
7 |
They bray among the bushes; under the brambles they are gathered together: |
8 |
Sons of fools, and sons of nameless sires, they are driven out of the land. |
9 |
And now I am their song, yea, I am their byword. |
10 |
They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, yea, they spare not to spit in my face. |
11 |
For he hath loosed my cord and afflicted me; so they cast off the bridle before me. |
12 |
At my right hand rise the young brood; they push away my feet, and raise up against me their pernicious ways; |
13 |
They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, without any to help them; |
14 |
They come in as through a wide breach: amid the confusion they roll themselves onward. |
15 |
Terrors are turned against me; they pursue mine honour as the wind; and my welfare is passed away like a cloud. |
16 |
And now my soul is poured out in me; days of affliction have taken hold upon me. |
17 |
The night pierceth through my bones and detacheth them from me, and my gnawing pains take no rest: |
18 |
By their great force they have become my raiment; they bind me about as the collar of my coat. |
19 |
He hath cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. |
20 |
I cry unto thee, and thou answerest me not; I stand up, and thou lookest at me. |
21 |
Thou art changed to a cruel one to me; with the strength of thy hand thou pursuest me. |
22 |
Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to be borne away, and dissolvest my substance. |
23 |
For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and into the house of assemblage for all living. |
24 |
Indeed, no prayer availeth when he stretcheth out his hand: though they cry when he destroyeth. |
25 |
Did not I weep for him whose days were hard? was not my soul grieved for the needy? |
26 |
For I expected good, and there came evil; and I waited for light, but there came darkness. |
27 |
My bowels well up, and rest not; days of affliction have confronted me. |
28 |
I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up, I cry in the congregation. |
29 |
I am become a brother to jackals, and a companion of ostriches. |
30 |
My skin is become black and falleth off me, and my bones are parched with heat. |
31 |
My harp also is turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of weepers. |