Capítulo 30

1 - "But now they mock me, men younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.

2 - Of what use was the strength of their hands to me, since their vigor had gone from them?

3 - Haggard from want and hunger, they roamed Or [gnawed] the parched land in desolate wastelands at night.

4 - In the brush they gathered salt herbs, and their food Or [fuel] was the root of the broom bush.

5 - They were banished from human society, shouted at as if they were thieves.

6 - They were forced to live in the dry stream beds, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.

7 - They brayed among the bushes and huddled in the undergrowth.

8 - A base and nameless brood, they were driven out of the land.

9 - "And now those young men mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.

10 - They detest me and keep their distance; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

11 - Now that God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they throw off restraint in my presence.

12 - On my right the tribe The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain. attacks; they lay snares for my feet, they build their siege ramps against me.

13 - They break up my road; they succeed in destroying me. 'No one can help him,' they say.

14 - They advance as through a gaping breach; amid the ruins they come rolling in.

15 - Terrors overwhelm me; my dignity is driven away as by the wind, my safety vanishes like a cloud.

16 - "And now my life ebbs away; days of suffering grip me.

17 - Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never rest.

18 - In his great power God becomes like clothing to me Hebrew; Septuagint [power he grasps my clothing]; he binds me like the neck of my garment.

19 - He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes.

20 - "I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me.

21 - You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me.

22 - You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm.

23 - I know you will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.

24 - "Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man when he cries for help in his distress.

25 - Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor?

26 - Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness.

27 - The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me.

28 - I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

29 - I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of owls.

30 - My skin grows black and peels; my body burns with fever.

31 - My lyre is tuned to mourning, and my pipe to the sound of wailing.