Job 30:16-31

¶“And now my soul is poured out within me; The days of affliction have seized me. “My bones are pierced [with aching] in the night season, And the pains that gnaw me take no rest. “By the great force [of my disease] my garment (skin) is disfigured and blemished; It binds about me [choking me] like the collar of my coat. “God has cast me into the mire [a swampland of crisis], And I have become [worthless] like dust and ashes. “I cry to You for help, [Lord,] but You do not answer me; I stand up, but You [only] gaze [indifferently] at me. “You have become harsh and cruel to me; With the might of Your hand You [keep me alive only to] persecute me. “You lift me up on the wind and cause me to ride [upon it]; And You toss me about in the tempest and dissolve me in the storm. “For I know that You will bring me to death And to the house of meeting [appointed] for all the living. ¶“However, does not one falling in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand? Or in his disaster [will he not] therefore cry out for help? “Did I not weep for one whose life was hard and filled with trouble? Was not my heart grieved for the needy? “When I expected good, then came evil [to me]; And when I waited for light, then came darkness. “I am seething within and my heart is troubled and cannot rest; Days of affliction come to meet me. “I go about mourning without comfort [my skin blackened by disease, not by the heat of the sun]; I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help. “I am a brother to [howling] jackals, And a companion to ostriches [which scream dismally]. “My skin falls from me in blackened flakes, And my bones are burned with fever. “Therefore my lyre (harp) is used for [the sound of] mourning, And my flute for the [sound of the] voices of those who weep.