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- ¶ BUT now they laugh at me, those who are less than I,
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- Whose fathers I have disdained, and did not consider them equal to the dogs of my flocks.
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- Yea, the strength of their hands, of what use would it have been to me?
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- For they had lost their power completely.
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- They were forced by bare necessities, like a thief swept off his feet,
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- Fleeing to dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth, in crevices,
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- In rocky places, and under bushes.
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- The children of fools shall be overthrown together with the children of the wicked;
they shall be brought lower than the earth.
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- And now I am the subject of their mocking, yea, I have become a byword to them.
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- They abhor me, they flee far from me, and do not fail to spit in my face.
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- Because they began to deride me and humiliate me, they have also put their bridle in my mouth.
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- They rise up against my right hand, they have tripped me up;
they have perplexed me through the crookedness of their ways.
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- They mar my paths without a cause, they rejoice for what has befallen me;
they shall have no helper.
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- They shall suffer a great ruin;
they shall be broken by the hurricane.
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- ¶ For they have brought terror upon me;
they have pursued my paths like the wind; and my help has passed away like a cloud.
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- And now my soul is weary;
the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
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- In the night my bones are in pain, and my body has no strength in it.
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- I have put on my garment;
and girded up myself with my robe.
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- But they have cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes.
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- I cry to thee, and thou dost not answer me;
I stand up and thou dost not consider me.
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- Thou hast treated me as an enemy to thee;
with thy strong hand thou hast restrained me.
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- Thou liftest me up to the wind;
thou causest me to ride upon it, and then thou afflictest me, and makest me wretched.
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- And yet I know that thou wilt bring me back from death to the meeting place for all living.
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- But he will not stretch out his hand against me, and when I cry to him he will save me.
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- I have wept for the poor in the daytime, and my soul was grieved for the fatherless.
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- But when I looked for good, evil came;
and when I waited for light, there came darkness.
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- My heart was agitated, and did not rest;
the days of affliction came upon me.
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- I walked mournfully without being resentful;
I stood up and wept in the congregation.
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- I am become a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.
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- My skin has shrunk upon me, and my bones are burned as with heat.
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- My harp is also turned to mourning, and my song to the voice of those who weep.
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