“But now they laugh at me,
    men who are younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
    to set with the dogs of my flock.
² What could I gain from the strength of their hands,
    men whose vigor is gone?
³ Through want and hard hunger
    they gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation;
⁴ they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes,
    and the roots of the broom tree for their food.^[a]
5 They are driven out from human company;
    they shout after them as after a thief.
⁶ In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell,
    in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
⁷ Among the bushes they bray;
    under the nettles they huddle together.
⁸ A senseless, a nameless brood,
    they have been whipped out of the land.

⁹ “And now I have become their song;
    I am a byword to them.
¹⁰ They abhor me; they keep aloof from me;
    they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.
¹¹ Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me,
    they have cast off restraint^[b] in my presence.
¹² On my right hand the rabble rise;
    they push away my feet;
    they cast up against me their ways of destruction.
¹³ They break up my path;
    they promote my calamity;
    they need no one to help them.
¹⁴ As through a wide breach they come;
    amid the crash they roll on.
¹⁵ Terrors are turned upon me;
    my honor is pursued as by the wind,
    and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

¹⁶ “And now my soul is poured out within me;
    days of affliction have taken hold of me.
¹⁷ The night racks my bones,
    and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.
¹⁸ With great force my garment is disfigured;
    it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
¹⁹ God^[c] has cast me into the mire,
    and I have become like dust and ashes.
²⁰ I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;
    I stand, and you only look at me.
²¹ You have turned cruel to me;
    with the might of your hand you persecute me.
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.
²³ For I know that you will bring me to death
    and to the house appointed for all living.

²⁴ “Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,
    and in his disaster cry for help?^[d]
25 Did not I weep for him whose day was hard?
    Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
²⁶ But when I hoped for good, evil came,
    and when I waited for light, darkness came.
²⁷ My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;
    days of affliction come to meet me.
²⁸ I go about darkened, but not by the sun;
    I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
²⁹ I am a brother of jackals
    and a companion of ostriches.
³⁰ My skin turns black and falls from me,
    and my bones burn with heat.
³¹ My lyre is turned to mourning,
    and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.

⁵ “If I have walked with falsehood
    and my foot has hastened to deceit;
⁶ (Let me be weighed in a just balance,
    and let God know my integrity!)
⁷ if my step has turned aside from the way
    and my heart has gone after my eyes,
    and if any spot has stuck to my hands,
⁸ then let me sow, and another eat,
    and let what grows for me^[e] be rooted out.

⁹ “If my heart has been enticed toward a woman,
    and I have lain in wait at my neighbor's door,
¹⁰ then let my wife grind for another,
    and let others bow down on her.
¹¹ For that would be a heinous crime;
    that would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges;
¹² for that would be a fire that consumes as far as Abaddon,
    and it would burn to the root all my increase.

¹³ “If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant,
    when they brought a complaint against me,
¹⁴ what then shall I do when God rises up?
    When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him?
¹⁵ Did not he who made me in the womb make him?
    And did not one fashion us in the womb?

¹⁶ “If I have withheld anything that the poor desired,
    or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
¹⁷ or have eaten my morsel alone,
    and the fatherless has not eaten of it
¹⁸ (for from my youth the fatherless^[f] grew up with me as with a father,
    and from my mother's womb I guided the widow^[g]),
¹⁹ if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing,
    or the needy without covering,
²⁰ if his body has not blessed me,^[h]
    and if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep,
²¹ if I have raised my hand against the fatherless,
    because I saw my help in the gate,
²² then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder,
    and let my arm be broken from its socket.
²³ For I was in terror of calamity from God,
    and I could not have faced his majesty.

²⁴ “If I have made gold my trust
    or called fine gold my confidence,
²⁵ if I have rejoiced because my wealth was abundant
    or because my hand had found much,
²⁶ if I have looked at the sun^[i] when it shone,
    or the moon moving in splendor,
²⁷ and my heart has been secretly enticed,
    and my mouth has kissed my hand,
²⁸ this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges,
    for I would have been false to God above.

²⁹ “If I have rejoiced at the ruin of him who hated me,
    or exulted when evil overtook him
³⁰ (I have not let my mouth sin
    by asking for his life with a curse),
³¹ if the men of my tent have not said,
    ‘Who is there that has not been filled with his meat?’
³² (the sojourner has not lodged in the street;
    I have opened my doors to the traveler),
³³ if I have concealed my transgressions as others do^[j]
    by hiding my iniquity in my heart,
³⁴ because I stood in great fear of the multitude,
    and the contempt of families terrified me,
    so that I kept silence, and did not go out of doors—
³⁵ Oh, that I had one to hear me!
    (Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!)
    Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary!
³⁶ Surely I would carry it on my shoulder;
    I would bind it on me as a crown;
³⁷ I would give him an account of all my steps;
    like a prince I would approach him.

³⁸ “If my land has cried out against me
    and its furrows have wept together,
³⁹ if I have eaten its yield without payment
    and made its owners breathe their last,
⁴⁰ let thorns grow instead of wheat,
    and foul weeds instead of barley.”