1 But now younger men in time scorn me, whose fathers I deigned not* This disdain came not of despite, neither of pride, but of worthy beholding of vilety or vileness. to set with the dogs of my flock.

2 Of which men the strength of their hands was for nought to me, and they were guessed unworthy to that life.

3 They were barren for neediness and hunger; they gnawed in wilder-ness, and were pale for poverty and wretchedness;

4 and they ate herbs, and the rinds of trees; and the root of junipers was their meat.

5 The which men ravished these things from great valleys; and when they had found any of all these things, they ran with a cry to them.

6 They dwelled in deserts of strands [or streams], and in caves of [the] earth, either on gravel.

7 Which were glad among such things, and they areckoned as delights to be under bushes.

8  These were the sons of fools, and of unnoble men, and utterly appearing not on [the] earth.

9 But now I am turned into the song of them, and I am made a proverb to them.

10 They hold me abominable, and they flee far from me, and dread not to spit on my face.

11 For God hath opened his arrow case, and he hath tormented me, and he hath put a bridle into my mouth.

12 At the right side of the east my wretchednesses have risen up anon; they turned upside down my feet, and they oppressed me with their paths as with floods.

13 They destroyed my ways; they setted treason to me, and they had the mastery; and there was none that helped me.

14 They felled in upon me as by a broken wall, and by gate opened, and were stretched forth to my wretched-nesses.

15 I am driven into nought; he took away my desire as [the] wind, and mine help passed away as a cloud.

16 But now my soul fadeth in myself, and [the] days of torment hold me steadfastly.

17 In [the] night my bone is pierced with sorrows; and they, that eat me, sleep not.

18 In the multitude of those [or them] my cloth is wasted, and they have girded me as with the collar of a coat.

19 I am comparisoned to clay, and I am made like to a dead spark and ashes.

20 I shall cry to thee, and thou shalt not hear me; I stand, and thou behold-est not me.

21 Thou art changed into cruel to me, and in the hardness of thine hand thou art adversary to me.

22 Thou hast raised me, and hast set me as on wind; and hast hurtled me down strongly.

23 I know, that thou shalt betake me to death, where an house is ordained to each living man.

24 Nevertheless thou sendest not out thine hand to the wasting of them; and if they fall down, thou shalt save them.

25 I wept sometime on him that was tormented, and my soul had compas-sion on a poor man.

26 I abode goods, and evils be come to me; I abode light, and darknesses brake out.

27 Mine inner things boiled out with-out my rest; and [the] days of torment came before me.

28 I went mourning, and I rose up without strong vengeance in the company, and I cried.

29 I was the brother of dragons, and the fellow of ostriches.

30 My skin was made black upon me, and my bones dried for heat.

31 Mine harp is turned into mourning, and mine organ into the voice of weepers.