6. Is tasteless food eaten without salt,or is there flavour in the sap of the mallow?
7. I refuse to touch it;such food makes me ill.
8. ‘Oh, that I might have my request,that God would grant what I hope for,
9. that God would be willing to crush me,to let loose his hand and cut off my life!
10. Then I would still have this consolation –my joy in unrelenting pain –that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.
11. ‘What strength do I have, that I should still hope?What prospects, that I should be patient?
12. Do I have the strength of stone?Is my flesh bronze?
13. Do I have any power to help myself,now that success has been driven from me?
14. ‘Anyone who withholds kindness from a friendforsakes the fear of the Almighty.
15. But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams,as the streams that overflow
16. when darkened by thawing iceand swollen with melting snow,