MSTC(i)
2 "Oh that I were as I was in the months by past, and in the days when God preserved me;
3 When his light shined upon my head; when I went after the same light and shining, even through the darkness.
4 As it stood with me, when I was young, when God prospered my house;
5 When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children stood about me;
6 When my ways ran over with butter, and when the stony rocks gave me rivers of oil;
7 When I went through the city unto the gate, and when they set me a chair in the street;
8 When the young men, as soon as they saw me, hid themselves, and when the aged arose, and stood up unto me;
9 when the princes left of their talking, and laid their hand to their mouth;
10 when the mighty kept still their voice, and when their tongues cleaved to the roof of their mouths;
11 When all they that heard me, called me happy, and when all they that saw me, wished me good.
12 "For I delivered the poor when he cried, and the fatherless that wanted help.
13 He that should have been lost, gave me a good word, and the widow's heart praised me.
14 And why? I put upon me righteousness, which covered me as a garment, and equity was my crown.
15 I was an eye unto the blind, and a foot to the lame;
16 I was a father unto the poor, and when I knew not their cause, I sought it out diligently.
17 I brake the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucked the spoil out of their teeth.
18 "Therefore, I thought verily that I should have died in my nest: and that my days should have been as many as the sands of the sea.
19 For my root was spread out by the water's side, and the dew lay upon my corn.
20 My honor increased more and more, and my bow was ever the stronger in my hand.
21 Unto me men gave ear, me they regarded, and with silence they tarried for my counsel.
22 If I had spoken, they would have it none other ways, my words were so well taken among them.
23 They waited for me, as the earth doth for the rain; and gaped upon me, as the ground doth to receive the latter shower.
24 When I laughed, they knew well it was not earnest; and this testimony of my countenance pleased them nothing at all.
25 When I agreed unto their way, I was the chief, and sat as a king among his servants; and when they were in heaviness, I was their comforter.
30 1 But now, they that are mine inferiors and younger than I, have me in derision; yea even they, whose fathers I would have thought scorn to have set with the dogs of my cattle.
2 The power and strength of their hands might do me no good, and as for their age, it is spent and past away without any profit.
3 For very misery and hunger, they went about in the wilderness like wretches and beggars,
4 plucking up herbs from among the bushes, and the Juniper's root was their meat.
5 And when they were driven forth, men cried after them, as it had been after a thief.
6 Their dwelling was beside foul brooks, yea in the caves and dens of the earth.
7 Upon the dry heath went they about crying, and under the thorns they gathered themselves together.
8 They were children of fools and villains, which are dead away from the world.
9 Now am I their song, and am become their jesting stock;
10 they abhor me, they flee far from me, and stain my face with spittle,
11 for the LORD hath opened his quiver: he hath hit me, and put a bridle in my mouth.
12 Upon my right hand they rose together against me; they have hurt my feet, made a way to destroy me,
13 and my path have they clean marred. It was so easy for them to do me harm, that they needed no man to help them.
14 They fell upon me, as it had been the breaking in of waters, and came in by heaps to destroy me.
15 "Fearfulness is turned against me. Mine honour vanisheth away more swiftly than wind, and my prosperity departeth hence like as it were a cloud.
16 Therefore is my mind poured full of heaviness, and the days of trouble have taken hold upon me.
17 My bones are pierced through in the night season, and my sinews take no rest.
18 With all their power have they changed my garment, and girded me therewith, as it were with a coat.
19 I am even as it were clay, and am become like ashes and dust.
20 When I cry unto thee, thou doest not hear me: and though I stand before thee, yet thou regardest me not.
21 Thou art become mine enemy, and with thy violent hand thou takest part against me.
22 In times past thou didst set me up on high, as it were above the wind, but now hast thou given me a very sore fall.
23 Sure I am, that thou wilt deliver me unto death: whereas a lodging is prepared for all men living.
24 Now use not men to do violence unto them, that are destroyed already; but where hurt is done, there use they to help.
25 Did not I weep in the time of trouble? Had not my soul compassion upon the poor?
26 Yet nevertheless, whereas I looked for good, evil happened unto me; and whereas I waited for light, there came darkness.
27 My bowels seeth within me, and take no rest, for the days of my trouble are come upon me.
28 Meekly and lowly came I in, yea and without any displeasure; I stood up in the congregation, and communed with them.
29 But now I am a companion of dragons, and a fellow of ostriches.
30 My skin upon me is turned to black, and my bones are burnt with heat;
31 my harp is turned to sorrow, and my pipe to weeping.