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30:1 "But now they make sport of me, those who are younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. 30:2 What could I gain from the strength of their hands? All their vigor is gone. 30:3 Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry and desolate ground, 30:4 they pick mallow and the leaves of bushes, and to warm themselves the roots of broom. 30:5 They are driven out from society; people shout after them as after a thief. 30:6 In the gullies of wadis they must live, in holes in the ground, and in the rocks. 30:7 Among the bushes they bray; under the nettles they huddle together. 30:8 A senseless, disreputable brood, they have been whipped out of the land. 30:9 "And now they mock me in song; I am a byword to them. 30:10 They abhor me, they keep aloof from me; they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me. 30:11 Because God has loosed my bowstring and humbled me, they have cast off restraint in my presence. 30:12 On my right hand the rabble rise up; they send me sprawling, and build roads for my ruin. 30:13 They break up my path, they promote my calamity; no one restrains them. 30:14 As through a wide breach they come; amid the crash they roll on. 30:15 Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by 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 taken hold of me. 30:17 The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest. 30:18 With violence he seizes my garment; he grasps me by the collar of my tunic. 30:19 He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. 30:20 I cry to you and you do not answer me; I stand, and you merely look at me. 30:21 You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me. 30:22 You lift me up on the wind, you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm. 30:23 I know that you will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living. 30:24 "Surely one does not turn against the needy, when in disaster they cry for help. 30:25 Did I not weep for those whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the poor? 30:26 But when I looked for good, evil came; and when I waited for light, darkness came. 30:27 My inward parts are in turmoil, and are never still; days of affliction come to meet me. 30:28 I go about in sunless gloom; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. 30:29 I am a brother of jackals, and a companion of ostriches. 30:30 My skin turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat. 30:31 My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.