30 “But now they mock me,^(A)
    men younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
    to put with my sheep dogs.^(B)
2 Of what use was the strength of their hands to me,
    since their vigor had gone from them?

¹⁶ “And now my life ebbs away;^(A)
    days of suffering grip me.^(B)
17 Night pierces my bones;
    my gnawing pains never rest.^(C)
18 In his great power^(D) God becomes like clothing to me^[a];
    he binds me like the neck of my garment.
¹⁹ He throws me into the mud,^(E)
    and I am reduced to dust and ashes.^(F)

²⁰ “I cry out to you,^(G) God, but you do not answer;^(H)
    I stand up, but you merely look at me.
²¹ You turn on me ruthlessly;^(I)
    with the might of your hand^(J) you attack me.^(K)
22 You snatch me up and drive me before the wind;^(L)
    you toss me about in the storm.^(M)
23 I know you will bring me down to death,^(N)
    to the place appointed for all the living.^(O)

²⁴ “Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man^(P)
    when he cries for help in his distress.^(Q)
25 Have I not wept for those in trouble?^(R)
    Has not my soul grieved for the poor?^(S)
26 Yet when I hoped for good, evil came;
    when I looked for light, then came darkness.^(T)
27 The churning inside me never stops;^(U)
    days of suffering confront me.^(V)
28 I go about blackened,^(W) but not by the sun;
    I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.^(X)
29 I have become a brother of jackals,^(Y)
    a companion of owls.^(Z)
30 My skin grows black^(AA) and peels;^(AB)
    my body burns with fever.^(AC)
31 My lyre is tuned to mourning,^(AD)
    and my pipe^(AE) to the sound of wailing.