^30:1 But now, those who are younger than I mock me, whose fathers I despised to set with the dogs of my flock.

    ^30:2 Yes, the strength of their hands, to what should it profit me? Men in whom ripe age has perished. ^30:3 They are barren with want and famine. They gnaw the dry ground in the gloom of waste and desolation. ^30:4 They pluck mallows by the bushes and the roots of the juniper are their food.

    ^30:5 They are driven forth from the midst of men. They cry out after them as after a thief, ^30:6 so that they dwell in frightful valleys, in holes of the earth and of the rocks. ^30:7 Among the bushes they bray, under the nettles they are gathered together. ^30:8 They are sons of fools, yes, sons of base men. They were scourged out of the land.

    ^30:9 And now I have become their song, Yes, I am a parable to them. ^30:10 They abhor me. They stand far away from me and do not refrain to spit in my face. ^30:11 For he has loosed his cord and afflicted me. And they have cast off the bridle before me.

    ^30:12 Upon my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet and they cast up against me their ways of destruction. ^30:13 They mar my path. They set forward my calamity, even men who have no helper.^30:14 As through a wide breach they come. In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me. ^30:15Terrors are turned upon me. They chase my honor as the wind and my welfare is passed away as a cloud.

    ^30:16 And now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold upon 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 the great force my garment is disfigured. It binds me about as the collar of my coat. ^30:19 He has cast me into the mud and 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. You cause me to ride upon it and you disintegrate me in the storm. ^30:23 For I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living.

    ^30:24 However does not a man stretch out the hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help? ^30:25 Did I not weep for him who was in trouble? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

    ^30:26 When I looked for good, then evil came. And when I waited for light, there came darkness.^30:27 My heart is troubled and does not rest. Days of affliction have come upon 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 is black, and falls from me. And 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.