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

¹⁶ “And now my soul is poured out within me;
    days of affliction have taken hold of me.^(A)
17 The night racks my bones,
    and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.
¹⁸ With violence he seizes my garment;^[a]
    he grasps me by^[b] the collar of my tunic.
¹⁹ He has cast me into the mire,
    and I have become like dust and ashes.^(B)
20 I cry to you, and you do not answer me;
    I stand, and you merely look at me.^(C)
21 You have turned cruel to me;
    with the might of your hand you persecute me.^(D)
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.^(E)
23 I know that you will bring me to death,
    to the house appointed for all living.^(F)

²⁴ “Surely one does not turn against the needy,^[c]
    when in disaster they cry for help.^[d](G)
25 Did I not weep for those whose day was hard?
    Was not my soul grieved for the poor?^(H)
26 But when I looked for good, evil came,
    and when I waited for light, darkness came.^(I)
27 My inward parts are in turmoil and are never still;
    days of affliction come to meet me.
²⁸ I go about in sunless gloom;
    I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.^(J)
29 I am a brother of jackals
    and a companion of ostriches.^(K)
30 My skin turns black and falls from me,
    and my bones burn with heat.^(L)
31 My lyre is turned to mourning
    and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.^(M)