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30:1 "BUT now those younger than I mock me, Whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock. 30:2 "Indeed, what [good was] the strength of their hands to me? Vigor had perished from them. 30:3 "From want and famine they are gaunt Who gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation, 30:4 Who pluck mallow by the bushes, And whose food is the root of the broom shrub. 30:5 "They are driven from the community; They shout against them as [against] a thief, 30:6 So that they dwell in dreadful valleys, In holes of the earth and of the rocks. 30:7 "Among the bushes they cry out; Under the nettles they are gathered together. 30:8 "Fools, even those without a name, They were scourged from the land. 30:9 "And now I have become their taunt, I have even become a byword to them. 30:10 "They abhor me [and] stand aloof from me, And they do not refrain from spitting at my face. 30:11 "Because He has loosed His bowstring and afflicted me, They have cast off the bridle before me. 30:12 "On the right hand their brood arises; They thrust aside my feet and build up against me their ways of destruction. 30:13 "They break up my path, They profit from my destruction, No one restrains them. 30:14 "As [through] a wide breach they come, Amid the tempest they roll on. 30:15 "Terrors are turned against me, They pursue my honor as the wind, And my prosperity has passed away like a cloud. 30:16 "And now my soul is poured out within me; Days of affliction have seized me. 30:17 "At night it pierces my bones within me, And my gnawing [pains] take no rest. 30:18 "By a great force my garment is distorted; It binds me about as the collar of my coat. 30:19 "He has cast me into the mire, And I have become like dust and ashes. 30:20 "I cry out to Thee for help, but Thou dost not answer me; I stand up, and Thou dost turn Thy attention against me. 30:21 "Thou hast become cruel to me; With the might of Thy hand Thou dost persecute me. 30:22 "Thou dost lift me up to the wind [and] cause me to ride; And Thou dost dissolve me in a storm. 30:23 "For I know that Thou wilt bring me to death And to the house of meeting for all living. 30:24 "Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out [his] hand, Or in his disaster therefore cry out for help? 30:25 "Have I not wept for the one whose life is hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy? 30:26 "When I expected good, then evil came; When I waited for light, then darkness came. 30:27 "I am seething within, and cannot relax; Days of affliction confront me. 30:28 "I go about mourning without comfort; I stand up in the assembly [and] cry out for help. 30:29 "I have become a brother to jackals, And a companion of ostriches. 30:30 "My skin turns black on me, And my bones burn with fever. 30:31 "Therefore my harp is turned to mourning, And my flute to the sound of those who weep.