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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.(A)
What could I gain from the strength of their hands?
    All their vigor is gone.
Through want and hard hunger
    they gnaw the dry and desolate ground;
they pick mallow and the leaves of bushes
    and to warm themselves the roots of broom.
They are driven out from society;
    people shout after them as after a thief.
In the gullies of wadis they must live,
    in holes in the ground and in the rocks.
Among the bushes they bray;
    under the nettles they huddle together.
A senseless, disreputable brood,
    they have been whipped out of the land.

“And now they mock me in song;
    I am a byword to them.(B)
10 They abhor me; they keep aloof from me;
    they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.(C)
11 Because God has loosed my bowstring and humbled me,
    they have cast off restraint in my presence.(D)
12 On my right hand the rabble rise up;
    they send me sprawling
    and build roads for my ruin.(E)
13 They break up my path;
    they promote my calamity;
    no one restrains[a] 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.(F)

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Footnotes

  1. 30.13 Cn: Heb helps

30 But now they mock(A) me,
men younger than I am,
whose fathers I would have refused to put
with my sheep dogs.
What use to me was the strength of their hands?
Their vigor had left them.
Emaciated from poverty and hunger,
they gnawed the dry land,
the desolate wasteland by night.
They plucked mallow[a](B) among the shrubs,
and the roots of the broom tree were their food.
They were banished from human society;
people shouted at them as if they were thieves.
They are living on the slopes of the wadis,
among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
They bray among the shrubs;
they huddle beneath the thistles.
Foolish(C) men, without even a name.
They were forced to leave the land.

Now I am mocked by their songs;(D)
I have become an object of scorn to them.
10 They despise me and keep their distance from me;(E)
they do not hesitate to spit(F) in my face.
11 Because God has loosened my[b] bowstring and oppressed me,
they have cast off restraint in my presence.(G)
12 The rabble[c] rise up at my right;
they trap[d] my feet
and construct their siege ramp[e] against me.(H)
13 They tear up my path;
they contribute to my destruction,(I)
without anyone to help them.
14 They advance as through a gaping breach;
they keep rolling in through the ruins.(J)
15 Terrors(K) are turned loose against me;
they chase my dignity away like the wind,
and my prosperity has passed by like a cloud.

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Footnotes

  1. 30:4 Or saltwort
  2. 30:11 Alt Hb tradition, LXX, Vg read his
  3. 30:12 Hb obscure
  4. 30:12 Lit stretch out
  5. 30:12 Lit and raise up their destructive paths