⁹ ‘And now those young men mock me in song;
    I have become a byword among them.
¹⁰ They detest me and keep their distance;
    they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

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

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

³⁵ (‘Oh, that I had someone to hear me!
    I sign now my defence – let the Almighty answer me;
    let my accuser put his indictment in writing.
³⁶ Surely I would wear it on my shoulder,
    I would put it on like a crown.
³⁷ I would give him an account of my every step;
    I would present it to him as to a ruler.) –