30:1 "But now they mock me, men younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.

30:2 Of what use was the strength of their hands to me, since their vigor had gone from them?

30:3 Haggard from want and hunger, they roamed the parched land in desolate wastelands at night.

30:4 In the brush they gathered salt herbs, and their food was the root of the broom tree.

30:5 They were banished from their fellow men, shouted at as if they were thieves.

30:6 They were forced to live in the dry stream beds, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.

30:7 They brayed among the bushes and huddled in the undergrowth.

30:8 A base and nameless brood, they were driven out of the land.

30:9 "And now their sons mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.

30:10 They detest me and keep their distance; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

30:11 Now that God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they throw off restraint in my presence.

30:12 On my right the tribe attacks; they lay snares for my feet, they build their siege ramps against me.

30:13 They break up my road; they succeed in destroying me--without anyone's helping them.

30:14 They advance as through a gaping breach; amid the ruins they come rolling in.

30:15 Terrors overwhelm me; my dignity is driven away as by the wind, my safety vanishes like a cloud.

30:16 "And now my life ebbs away; days of suffering grip me.

30:17 Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never rest.

30:18 In his great power God becomes like clothing to me; he binds me like the neck of my garment.

30:19 He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes.

30:20 "I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me.

30:21 You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me.

30:22 You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm.

30:23 I know you will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.

30:24 "Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man when he cries for help in his distress.

30:25 Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor?

30:26 Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness.

30:27 The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me.

30:28 I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

30:29 I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of owls.

30:30 My skin grows black and peels; my body burns with fever.

30:31 My harp is tuned to mourning, and my flute to the sound of wailing.