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 shout 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.