²⁶ Yet when I hoped for good, evil came;
    when I looked for light, then came darkness.^(A)
27 The churning inside me never stops;^(B)
    days of suffering confront me.^(C)
28 I go about blackened,^(D) but not by the sun;
    I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.^(E)
29 I have become a brother of jackals,^(F)
    a companion of owls.^(G)
30 My skin grows black^(H) and peels;^(I)
    my body burns with fever.^(J)
31 My lyre is tuned to mourning,^(K)
    and my pipe^(L) to the sound of wailing.