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.
25. Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor?
26. Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness.
27. The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me.
28. I go about blackened, but not by the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
29. I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of owls.
30. My skin grows black and peels; my body burns with fever.