²⁴ My knees are weak from fasting,
    and I am skin and bones.

⁴ My heart is sick, withered like grass,
    and I have lost my appetite.
⁵ Because of my groaning,
    I am reduced to skin and bones.

¹⁰ When I weep and fast,
    they scoff at me.

⁵ My wounds fester and stink
    because of my foolish sins.
⁶ I am bent over and racked with pain.
    All day long I walk around filled with grief.
⁷ A raging fever burns within me,
    and my health is broken.
⁸ I am exhausted and completely crushed.
    My groans come from an anguished heart.

¹³ Yet when they were ill, I grieved for them.
    I denied myself by fasting for them,
    but my prayers returned unanswered.
¹⁴ I was sad, as though they were my friends or family,
    as if I were grieving for my own mother.

³ When I refused to confess my sin,
    my body wasted away,
    and I groaned all day long.
⁴ Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.
    My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Interlude

¹⁴ My life is poured out like water,
    and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax,
    melting within me.