11. Now that God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they throw off restraint in my presence.
12. On my right the tribe attacks; they lay snares for my feet, they build their siege ramps against me.
13. They break up my road; they succeed in destroying me. ‘No one can help him,’ they say.
14. They advance as through a gaping breach; amid the ruins they come rolling in.
15. Terrors overwhelm me; my dignity is driven away as by the wind, my safety vanishes like a cloud.
16. “And now my life ebbs away; days of suffering grip me.
17. Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never rest.
18. In his great power God becomes like clothing to me ; he binds me like the neck of my garment.
19. He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes.
20. “I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me.
21. You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of your hand you attack me.
22. You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm.
23. I know you will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
24. “Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man when he cries for help in his distress.