30 “But now they make sport of me,
    men who are younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
    to set with the dogs of my flock.
² What could I gain from the strength of their hands,
    men whose vigor is gone?

¹⁶ “And now my soul is poured out within me;
    days of affliction have taken hold of me.
¹⁷ The night racks my bones,
    and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.
¹⁸ With violence it seizes my garment;^[a]
    it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
¹⁹ God has cast me into the mire,
    and I have become like dust and ashes.
²⁰ I cry to thee and thou dost not answer me;
    I stand, and thou dost not^[b] heed me.
²¹ Thou hast turned cruel to me;
    with the might of thy hand thou dost persecute me.
²² Thou liftest me up on the wind, thou makest me ride on it,
    and thou tossest me about in the roar of the storm.
²³ Yea, I know that thou wilt bring me to death,
    and to the house appointed for all living.

²⁴ “Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,
    and in his disaster cry for help?^[c]
25 Did not I weep for him whose day was hard?
    Was not my soul grieved for the poor?
²⁶ But when I looked for good, evil came;
    and when I waited for light, darkness came.
²⁷ My heart is in turmoil, and is never still;
    days of affliction come to meet me.
²⁸ I go about blackened, but not by the sun;
    I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
²⁹ I am a brother of jackals,
    and a companion of ostriches.
³⁰ My skin turns black and falls from me,
    and my bones burn with heat.
³¹ My lyre is turned to mourning,
    and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.