30:1 “But now they mock me, those who are younger than I, whose fathers I disdained too much to put with my sheep dogs.
30:2 Moreover, the strength of their hands — what use was it to me? Men whose strength had perished;
30:3 gaunt with want and hunger, they would gnaw the parched land, in former time desolate and waste.
30:4 By the brush they would gather herbs from the salt marshes, and the root of the broom tree was their food.
30:5 They were banished from the community — people shouted at them like they would at thieves —
30:6 so that they had to live in the dry stream beds, in the holes of the ground, and among the rocks.
30:7 They brayed like animals among the bushes and were huddled together under the nettles.
30:8 Sons of senseless and nameless people, they were driven out of the land with whips.
30:9 “And now I have become their taunt song; I have become a byword among them.
30:10 They detest me and maintain their distance; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
30:11 Because God has untied my tent cord and afflicted me, people throw off all restraint in my presence.
30:12 On my right the young rabble rise up; they drive me from place to place, and build up siege ramps against me.
30:13 They destroy my path; they succeed in destroying me without anyone helping them.
30:14 They come in as through a wide breach; amid the crash they come rolling in.
30:15 Terrors are turned loose on me; they drive away my honor like the wind, and like a cloud my deliverance has passed away.
30:16 “And now my soul pours itself out within me; days of suffering take hold of me.
30:17 Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never cease.