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Chapter 30 |
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1 | But now they that are younger than I
have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the
dogs of my flock. |
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2 | Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands
profit me, in whom old age was perished? |
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3 | For want and famine they
were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and
waste. |
| 4 |
Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their
meat. |
| 5 |
They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them
as after a thief;) |
| 6 | To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in
caves of the earth, and in the rocks. |
| 7 | Among the bushes they brayed;
under the nettles they were gathered together. |
| 8 | They were
children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the
earth. |
| 9 |
And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword. |
| 10 |
They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.
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| 11 | Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let
loose the bridle before me. |
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12 | Upon my right hand rise the youth;
they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their
destruction. |
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13 | They mar my path, they set forward my calamity,
they have no helper. |
| 14 | They came upon me as a wide breaking in of
waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me. |
| 15 | Terrors
are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth
away as a cloud. |
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16 | And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of
affliction have taken hold upon me. |
| 17 | My bones are pierced in me in
the night season: and my sinews take no rest. |
| 18 | By the great
force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of
my coat. |
| 19
| He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust
and ashes. |
| 20
| I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up,
and thou regardest me not. |
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21 | Thou art become cruel to me: with thy
strong hand thou opposest thyself against me. |
| 22 | Thou liftest
me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my
substance. |
| 23
| For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the
house appointed for all living. |
| 24 | Howbeit he will not stretch
out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction. |
| 25 | Did
not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the
poor? |
| 26 |
When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I
waited for light, there came darkness. |
| 27 | My bowels boiled, and rested
not: the days of affliction prevented me. |
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28 | I went mourning without
the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation. |
| 29 | I am a
brother to dragons, and a companion to owls. |
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30 | My skin is black upon
me, and my bones are burned with heat. |
| 31 | My harp also is turned to
mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep. |
