| Chapter 30
|
| 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. |
|
2 | Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit
me, in whom old age was perished? |
|
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. |
| 11 |
Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the
bridle before me. |
| 12 |
Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up
against me the ways of their destruction. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
|
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. |
|
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. |
| 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. |
