The Book of Job

But now the younger ones laugh at me; [those] whose fathers I would have refused to set with the dogs of my flock.

Also, what [profit] for me [was] the strength of their hands; [for] full vigor had perished from them?

They are lifeless with want and hunger, those who gnaw the dry ground [which was] formerly waste and desolation;

[those] plucking mallow by the bushes, and broom roots [for] their food;

they are driven from the midst; they shouted against them as a thief;

[they] dwell in the chasms of the torrents, [in] the holes of the earth, and [in] rocks.

They bray among the bushes; they huddle together under the nettles;

sons of fools; yea, sons without a name; they have been whipped out of the land.

And now I am their song; yea, I am their byword.

They despise me, and they keep away from me; they do not spare spit from my face;

Because He has loosed His bowstring and afflicted me, they also have thrown off the bridle in my presence.

On [my] right hand a brood rises; they push away my feet and raise their destructive ways against me.

They have broken down my path; they profit by my ruin; they have no helper.

They come on, as [through] a break; they roll on under ruin.

Terrors are turned on me; they pursue my soul like the wind, and my goods pass away like a cloud.

And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have seized me.

The night pierces my bones on me, and my gnawings never lie down.

By the great force [of my disease] my garment is disfigured; it chokes me like the mouth of my coat.

[He has] cast me into the mire; and I have become like dust and ashes.

I cried to You, but You did not answer me. I stood up, and You looked at me.

You changed to [be] cruel to me; You assault me with the might of Your hand;

You lift me up to the wind; You cause me to ride [on it]; and You melt me in a storm.

For I know [that] You will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.

Surely He will not stretch out [His] hand to the ruin heap; behold, they cry for help in their misfortune.

Did I not weep for him whose day is hard; and my soul grieved for the poor?

When I looked for good, then evil came; and when I waited for light, then darkness came.

My bowels have boiled, and not rested; the days of affliction confront me.

I go in mourning with no sun; I stood up in the assembly, [and] I cried out.

I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to daughters of the ostrich.

My skin is blackened on me, and my bones are burned with heat.

And my lyre has [turned] to mourning, and My flute [vibrates] to the sound of weeping.