Daily Bread

30 “But now they mock me,^(A)
    men younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
    to put with my sheep dogs.^(B)
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^[a] the parched land^(C)
    in desolate wastelands^(D) at night.^(E)
4 In the brush they gathered salt herbs,^(F)
    and their food^[b] was the root of the broom bush.^(G)
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.^(H)
7 They brayed^(I) among the bushes^(J)
    and huddled in the undergrowth.
⁸ A base and nameless brood,^(K)
    they were driven out of the land.^(L)

⁹ “And now those young men mock me^(M) in song;^(N)
    I have become a byword^(O) among them.
¹⁰ They detest me^(P) and keep their distance;
    they do not hesitate to spit in my face.^(Q)
11 Now that God has unstrung my bow^(R) and afflicted me,^(S)
    they throw off restraint^(T) in my presence.
¹² On my right^(U) the tribe^[c] attacks;
    they lay snares^(V) for my feet,^(W)
    they build their siege ramps against me.^(X)
13 They break up my road;^(Y)
    they succeed in destroying me.^(Z)
    ‘No one can help him,’ they say.
¹⁴ They advance as through a gaping breach;^(AA)
    amid the ruins they come rolling in.
¹⁵ Terrors^(AB) overwhelm me;^(AC)
    my dignity is driven away as by the wind,
    my safety vanishes like a cloud.^(AD)

¹⁶ “And now my life ebbs away;^(AE)
    days of suffering grip me.^(AF)
17 Night pierces my bones;
    my gnawing pains never rest.^(AG)
18 In his great power^(AH) God becomes like clothing to me^[d];
    he binds me like the neck of my garment.
¹⁹ He throws me into the mud,^(AI)
    and I am reduced to dust and ashes.^(AJ)

²⁰ “I cry out to you,^(AK) God, but you do not answer;^(AL)
    I stand up, but you merely look at me.
²¹ You turn on me ruthlessly;^(AM)
    with the might of your hand^(AN) you attack me.^(AO)
22 You snatch me up and drive me before the wind;^(AP)
    you toss me about in the storm.^(AQ)
23 I know you will bring me down to death,^(AR)
    to the place appointed for all the living.^(AS)

²⁴ “Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man^(AT)
    when he cries for help in his distress.^(AU)
25 Have I not wept for those in trouble?^(AV)
    Has not my soul grieved for the poor?^(AW)
26 Yet when I hoped for good, evil came;
    when I looked for light, then came darkness.^(AX)
27 The churning inside me never stops;^(AY)
    days of suffering confront me.^(AZ)
28 I go about blackened,^(BA) but not by the sun;
    I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.^(BB)
29 I have become a brother of jackals,^(BC)
    a companion of owls.^(BD)
30 My skin grows black^(BE) and peels;^(BF)
    my body burns with fever.^(BG)
31 My lyre is tuned to mourning,^(BH)
    and my pipe^(BI) to the sound of wailing.