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30:1  ‘But now it is different. Men who are younger than I am laugh at me. I would not even trust their fathers to take care of my sheep.
30:2  The work that those old men could do was no help to me. They no longer were strong.
30:3  They were weak and thin because they were hungry. They had to look for food in the desert at night. They found roots to eat in dry places.
30:4  They pulled up plants in the desert as their food. They burned the roots of bushes to keep themselves warm.
30:5  People chased them away from their towns, as if they were shouting at robbers.
30:6  They had to live in dry valleys, among the rocks, or in caves.
30:7  They cried aloud like animals among the bushes. They hid together under the thorn bushes.
30:8  They were foolish people that nobody respected. People chased them away from their land.
30:9  But now their sons sing songs that insult me. They tell jokes about me.
30:10  They hate me and they do not come near me. When they see me, they spit at my face.
30:11  God has made me weak and helpless. People do to me anything that they want to do.
30:12  From one side, the crowd attacks me. They make me run away. They are like an army that builds a road to come and attack me.
30:13  They stop me from escaping. They are ready to destroy me. They do not need anyone to help them.
30:14  I cannot stop them when they attack me. They rush forward to knock me down.
30:15  So I am always afraid. My honour has disappeared as if a strong wind has blown it away. My riches have also gone, like a cloud that passes across the sky.
30:16  Now I know that my life will soon end. Every day I continue to suffer.
30:17  At night, my bones are painful. The pain is always there in my body.
30:18  God has used his power to take hold of me. He has held my shirt around my neck.
30:19  He has thrown me down into the mud. I am no better than dust and ashes on the ground.
30:20  I call aloud to you, God, but you do not answer me. When I stand to pray, you only look at me.
30:21  You have become cruel to me. You have used your strength to attack me.
30:22  You take hold of me and you carry me away, like a strong wind that blows. You use a storm to destroy me.
30:23  I know that you are already taking me to my death. Everyone who lives has to go to that place.
30:24  When someone is weak and in trouble, people do not usually try to hurt him. When someone calls aloud for help, they do not refuse to help him.
30:25  When other people were in trouble, I wept for them. When I saw poor people it made me very upset.
30:26  But when I hoped for good things to happen, trouble came instead. When I looked for light to shine on me, everything became dark.
30:27  I hurt inside me all the time. Every day I suffer from pain.
30:28  Illness has caused my skin to become black. It is not the sun that has made that happen. I stand up in the public meeting place and I call aloud for help.
30:29  I have become like the jackals and the ostriches. My sad voice sounds like them.
30:30  My skin has become black, and bits of skin fall off. My body is hot with fever.
30:31  Now, when I make music with my harp, I only sing funeral songs. When I make music with my flute, I do it for people who are weeping.’