Chapter 30

  But now the younger in time scorn me, whose fathers I would not have set with the dogs of my flock:  

  The strength of whose hands was to me as nothing, and they were thought unworthy of life itself.  

  Barren with want and hunger, who gnawed in the wilderness, disfigured with calamity and misery.  

  And they ate grass, and barks of trees, and the root of junipers was their food.  

  Who snatched up these things out of the valleys, and when they had found any of them, they ran to them with a cry.  

  They dwelt in the desert places of torrents, and in caves of earth, or upon the gravel.  

  They pleased themselves among these kind of things, and counted it delightful to be under the briers.  

  The children of foolish and base men, and not appearing at all upon the earth.  

  Now I am turned into their song, and am become their byword.  

  They abhor me, and flee far from me, and are not afraid to spit in my face.  

  For he hath opened his quiver, and hath afflicted me, and hath put a bridle into my mouth.  

  At the right hand of my rising, my calamities forthwith arose: they have overthrown my feet, and have overwhelmed me with their paths as with waves.  

  They have destroyed my ways, they have lain in wait against me, and they have prevailed, and there was none to help.  

  They have rushed in upon me, as when a wall is broken, and a gate opened, and have rolled themselves down to my miseries.  

  I am brought to nothing: as a wind thou hast taken away my desire: and my prosperity hath passed away like a cloud.  

  And now my soul fadeth within myself, and the days of affliction possess me.  

  In the night my bone is pierced with sorrows: and they that feed upon me, do not sleep.  

  With the multitude of them my garment is consumed, and they have girded me about, as with the collar of my coat.  

  I am compared to dirt, and am likened to embers and ashes.  

  I cry to thee, and thou hearest me not: I stand up, and thou dost not regard me.  

  Thou art changed to be cruel toward me, and in the hardness of thy hand thou art against me.  

  Thou hast lifted me up, and set me as it were upon the wind, and thou hast mightily dashed me.  

  I know that thou wilt deliver me to death, where a house is appointed for every one that liveth.  

  But yet thou stretchest not forth thy hand to their consumption: and if they shall fall down thou wilt save.  

  I wept heretofore for him that was afflicted, and my soul had compassion on the poor.  

  I expected good things, and evils are come upon me: I waited for light, and darkness broke out.  

  My inner parts have boiled without any rest, the days of affliction have prevented me.  

  I went mourning without indignation; I rose up, and cried in the crowd.  

  I was the brother of dragons, and companion of ostriches.  

  My skin is become black upon me, and my bones are dried up with heat.  

  My harp is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of those that weep.