For my days vanished like smoke, and my bones were burned like coals.
The elders of his household stood beside him in order to get him up from the floor but he was unwilling and would not eat food with them.
Then Ezra got up from before the House of God and went into the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he was there, he ate no bread and drank no water, because he continued to mourn over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.
“I loathe my own life; I will give full vent to my complaint; I will speak out of the bitterness of my soul.
My skin has turned black on me; my bones burn with heat.
so that his life loathes bread, and his soul, desirable food.
For the arrows of Shaddai are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison; God’s terrors line up against me.
because of Your indignation and wrath, for You have picked me up and tossed me aside.
My enemies taunt me all day. My deriders use my name to curse.
For like the grass they soon wither and fade like a green herb.
Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why are you murmuring within me? Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, for the salvation of His presence.
You know my reproach, my shame, my disgrace. All my adversaries are before You.
In the day of my trouble I seek my Lord. At night my hand stretches out untiringly. My soul refuses to be comforted.
The grass withers, the flower fades. For the breath of Adonai blows on it. Surely the people are grass.
He shot into my kidneys arrows from His quiver.
Whenever I remember, my soul is downcast within me.
For three days he could not see, and he did not eat or drink.