| New International Version | King James Bible |
| 1"But now they mock me, men younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs. | 1But 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. |
| 2Of what use was the strength of their hands to me, since their vigor had gone from them? | 2Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished? |
| 3Haggard from want and hunger, they roamed the parched land in desolate wastelands at night. | 3For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste. |
| 4In the brush they gathered salt herbs, and their food was the root of the broom bush. | 4Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat. |
| 5They were banished from human society, shouted at as if they were thieves. | 5They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;) |
| 6They were forced to live in the dry stream beds, among the rocks and in holes in the ground. | 6To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks. |
| 7They brayed among the bushes and huddled in the undergrowth. | 7Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together. |
| 8A base and nameless brood, they were driven out of the land. | 8They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth. |
| 9"And now those young men mock me in song; I have become a byword among them. | 9And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword. |
| 10They detest me and keep their distance; they do not hesitate to spit in my face. | 10They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face. |
| 11Now that God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they throw off restraint in my presence. | 11Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me. |
| 12On my right the tribe attacks; they lay snares for my feet, they build their siege ramps against me. | 12Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction. |
| 13They break up my road; they succeed in destroying me. 'No one can help him,' they say. | 13They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper. |
| 14They advance as through a gaping breach; amid the ruins they come rolling in. | 14They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me. |
| 15Terrors overwhelm me; my dignity is driven away as by the wind, my safety vanishes like a cloud. | 15Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud. |
| 16"And now my life ebbs away; days of suffering grip me. | 16And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me. |
| 17Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never rest. | 17My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest. |
| 18In his great power God becomes like clothing to me; he binds me like the neck of my garment. | 18By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat. |
| 19He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes. | 19He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes. |
| 20"I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me. | 20I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not. |
| 21You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me. | 21Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me. |
| 22You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm. | 22Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance. |
| 23I know you will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living. | 23For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living. |
| 24"Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man when he cries for help in his distress. | 24Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction. |
| 25Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor? | 25Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor? |
| 26Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness. | 26When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. |
| 27The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me. | 27My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me. |
| 28I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help. | 28I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation. |
| 29I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of owls. | 29I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls. |
| 30My skin grows black and peels; my body burns with fever. | 30My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat. |
| 31My lyre is tuned to mourning, and my pipe to the sound of wailing. | 31My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep. |
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