<p class="poetry">For you have said, &#8216;My teaching<n id="1" /> is flawless,p> <p class="poetry">and I am pure in your sight.&#8217;p>

<p class="poetry">I was eyes for the blindp> <p class="poetry">and feet for the lame;p>

<t /><p class="poetry">&#8220;And now I have become their taunt song;p> <p class="poetry">I have become a byword<n id="1" /> among them.p>

<p class="poetry">I have become a brother to jackalsp> <p class="poetry">and a companion of ostriches.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">Many are appalled when they see me,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">but you are my secure shelter.p>

<p class="poetry">I should have been as though I had never existed;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I should have been carriedp> <p class="poetry">right from the womb to the grave!p>

<p class="poetry">My guests<n id="1" /> and my servant girlsp> <p class="poetry">consider<n id="2" /> me a stranger;p> <p class="poetry">I am a foreigner<n id="3" /> in their eyes.p>

<p class="poetry">just as I was in my most productive time,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">when God&#8217;s intimate friendship<n id="2" /> was experienced in my tent,p>

<p class="poetry">I am forgotten, like a dead man no one thinks about;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I am regarded as worthless, like a broken jar.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">My own brothers treat me like a stranger;p> <p class="poetry">they act as if I were a foreigner.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">I was ignorant<n id="1" /> and lacked insight;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">I was as senseless as an animal before you.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">I am like an owl<n id="1" /> in the wilderness;p> <p class="poetry">I am like a screech owl<n id="2" /> among the ruins.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">I am disdained by them.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">When they see me, they shake their heads.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">For<n id="1" /> I am like a wineskin<n id="2" /> dried up in smoke.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">I do not forget your statutes.p>

<p class="poetry">When I was a son to my father,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">a tender only child<n id="2" /> before my mother,p>

<p class="poetry">I almost<n id="1" /> came to complete ruin<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">in the midst of the whole congregation!&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<t /><p class="poetry">I, the Teacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">I have become the laughingstock of all people,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">their mocking song<n id="2" /> all day long.<n id="3" />p>

I was consumed by scorching heat<n id="1" /> during the day and by piercing cold<n id="2" /> at night, and I went without sleep.<n id="3" />

When she bore<n id="1" /> a son, Moses<n id="2" /> named him Gershom, for he said, &#8220;I have become a resident foreigner in a foreign land.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>