1. “But now they mock me, those who are younger than I,whose fathers I disdained too much to put with my sheep dogs.
2. Moreover, the strength of their hands – what use was it to me?Men whose strength had perished;
3. gaunt with want and hunger,they would gnaw the parched land,in former time desolate and waste.
4. By the brush they would gather herbs from the salt marshes,and the root of the broom tree was their food.
5. They were banished from the community – people shouted at them like they would shout at thieves –
6. so that they had to live in the dry stream beds,in the holes of the ground, and among the rocks.
7. They brayed like animals among the bushesand were huddled together under the nettles.
8. Sons of senseless and nameless people,they were driven out of the land with whips.
9. “And now I have become their taunt song;I have become a byword among them.
10. They detest me and maintain their distance;they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
11. Because God has untied my tent cord and afflicted me,people throw off all restraint in my presence.
12. On my right the young rabble rise up;they drive me from place to place,and build up siege ramps against me.