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Rh :And dwelt as a king in the army,
 * As one that comforteth the mourners.


 * But now they that are younger than I have me in derision,
 * Whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.
 * Yea, the strength of their hands, whereto should it profit me?
 * Men in whom ripe age is perished.
 * They are gaunt with want and famine;
 * They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.
 * They pluck salt-wort with wormwood;
 * And the roots of the broom are their food.
 * They are driven forth from the midst of men;
 * They cry after them as after a thief.
 * In the clefts of the valleys must they dwell,
 * In holes of the earth and of the rocks.
 * Among the bushes they bray;
 * Under the nettles they are gathered together.
 * They are children of churls, yea, children of ignoble men;
 * They were scourged out of the land.


 * And now I am become their song,
 * Yea, I am a byword unto them.
 * They abhor me, they flee far from me,
 * And spare not to spit in my face.
 * For He hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me,
 * And they have cast off the bridle before me.
 * Upon my right hand rise the brood;
 * They entangle my feet,
 * And they cast up against me their ways of destruction.
 * They break up my path,
 * They further my calamity,
 * Even men that have no helper.
 * As through a wide breach they come;
 * In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me.
 * Terrors are turned upon me,
 * They chase mine honour as the wind;
 * And my welfare is passed away as a cloud.


 * And now my soul is poured out within me;
 * Days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
 * In the night my bones are pierced, and fall from me,
 * And my sinews take no rest.
 * By the great force [of my disease] is my garment disfigured;
 * It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.
 * He hath cast me into the mire,
 * And I am become like dust and ashes.
 * I cry unto Thee, and Thou dost not answer me;
 * I stand up, and Thou lookest at me. Thou art turned to be cruel to me;
 * With the might of Thy hand Thou hatest me.
 * Thou liftest me up to the wind, Thou causest me to ride upon it;
 * And Thou dissolvest my substance.
 * For I know that Thou wilt bring me to death,
 * And to the house appointed for all living.


 * Surely none shall put forth his hand to a ruinous heap,
 * Neither because of these things shall help come in one's calamity,
 * If I have not wept for him that was in trouble,