²³ Some went down to the sea in ships,
    doing business on the mighty waters;
²⁴ they saw the deeds of the Lord,
    his wondrous works in the deep.
²⁵ For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
    which lifted up the waves of the sea.^(A)
26 They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths;
    their courage melted away in their calamity;^(B)
27 they reeled and staggered like drunkards
    and were at their wits’ end.^(C)
28 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
    and he brought them out from their distress;
²⁹ he made the storm be still,
    and the waves of the sea were hushed.^(D)
30 Then they were glad because they had quiet,
    and he brought them to their desired haven.
³¹ Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
    for his wonderful works to humankind.^(E)
32 Let them extol him in the congregation of the people
    and praise him in the assembly of the elders.^(F)

²¹ “They listened to me and waited
    and kept silence for my counsel.^(A)
22 After I spoke they did not speak again,
    and my word dropped upon them like dew.^[a](B)
23 They waited for me as for the rain;
    they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.
²⁴ I smiled on them when they had no confidence,
    and the light of my countenance they did not extinguish.^[b]
25 I chose what they should do and sat as chief,
    and I lived like a king among his troops,
    like one who comforts mourners.^(C)

30 “But now they make sport of me,
    those who are younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
    to set with the dogs of my flock.^(D)
2 What could I gain from the strength of their hands?
    All their vigor is gone.
³ Through want and hard hunger
    they gnaw the dry and desolate ground;
⁴ they pick mallow and the leaves of bushes
    and to warm themselves the roots of broom.
⁵ They are driven out from society;
    people shout after them as after a thief.
⁶ In the gullies of wadis they must live,
    in holes in the ground and in the rocks.
⁷ Among the bushes they bray;
    under the nettles they huddle together.
⁸ A senseless, disreputable brood,
    they have been whipped out of the land.

⁹ “And now they mock me in song;
    I am a byword to them.^(E)
10 They abhor me; they keep aloof from me;
    they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.^(F)
11 Because God has loosed my bowstring and humbled me,
    they have cast off restraint in my presence.^(G)
12 On my right hand the rabble rise up;
    they send me sprawling
    and build roads for my ruin.^(H)
13 They break up my path;
    they promote my calamity;
    no one restrains^[c] them.
¹⁴ As through a wide breach they come;
    amid the crash they roll on.
¹⁵ Terrors are turned upon me;
    my honor is pursued as by the wind,
    and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.^(I)