18. With great difficulty I change my clothes,the collar of my tunic fits around my waist.
19. He has cast me into the mire;I have become like dust and ashes.
20. I cry to you, but you do not answer me;I stand, but you take no notice.
21. You have turned into my tormentor,and with your strong hand you attack me.
22. You raise me up and drive me before the wind;I am tossed about by the tempest.
23. Indeed I know that you will return me to deathto the house destined for everyone alive.
24. Yet should not a hand be held outto help a wretched person in distress?
25. Did I not weep for the hardships of others;was not my soul grieved for the poor?
26. Yet when I looked for good, evil came;when I expected light, darkness came.
27. My inward parts seethe and will not be stilled;days of affliction have overtaken me.
28. I go about in gloom, without the sun;I rise in the assembly and cry for help.
29. I have become a brother to jackals,a companion to ostriches.
30. My blackened skin falls away from me;my very frame is scorched by the heat.
31. My lyre is tuned to mourning,and my reed pipe to sounds of weeping.