30:1  “But now they mock at me, men younger than I,
Whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock.

30:2  Indeed, what profit is the strength of their hands to me?
Their vigor has perished.

30:3  They are gaunt from want and famine,
Fleeing late to the wilderness, desolate and waste,

30:4  Who pluck mallow by the bushes,
And broom tree roots for their food.

30:5  They were driven out from among men,
They shouted at them as at a thief.

30:6  They had to live in the clefts of the valleys,
In caves of the earth and the rocks.

30:7  Among the bushes they brayed,
Under the nettles they nestled.

30:8  They were sons of fools,
Yes, sons of vile men;
They were scourged from the land.

30:9  “And now I am their taunting song;
Yes, I am their byword.

30:10  They abhor me, they keep far from me;
They do not hesitate to spit in my face.

30:11  Because He has loosed my bowstring and afflicted me,
They have cast off restraint before me.

30:12  At my right hand the rabble arises;
They push away my feet,
And they raise against me their ways of destruction.

30:13  They break up my path,
They promote my calamity;
They have no helper.

30:14  They come as broad breakers;
Under the ruinous storm they roll along.

30:15  Terrors are turned upon me;
They pursue my honor as the wind,
And my prosperity has passed like a cloud.

30:16  “And now my soul is poured out because of my plight;
The days of affliction take hold of me.

30:17  My bones are pierced in me at night,
And my gnawing pains take no rest.

30:18  By great force my garment is disfigured;
It binds me about as the collar of my coat.

30:19  He has cast me into the mire,
And I have become like dust and ashes.

30:20  “I cry out to You, but You do not answer me;
I stand up, and You regard me.

30:21  But You have become cruel to me;
With the strength of Your hand You oppose me.

30:22  You lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride on it;
You spoil my success.

30:23  For I know that You will bring me to death,
And to the house appointed for all living.

30:24  “Surely He would not stretch out His hand against a heap of ruins,
If they cry out when He destroys it.

30:25  Have I not wept for him who was in trouble?
Has not my soul grieved for the poor?

30:26  But when I looked for good, evil came to me;
And when I waited for light, then came darkness.

30:27  My heart is in turmoil and cannot rest;
Days of affliction confront me.

30:28  I go about mourning, but not in the sun;
I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help.

30:29  I am a brother of jackals,
And a companion of ostriches.

30:30  My skin grows black and falls from me;
My bones burn with fever.

30:31  My harp is turned to mourning,
And my flute to the voice of those who weep.