“But now they ilaugh at me,

men who are jyounger than I,

whose fathers I would have disdained

to set with the dogs of my flock.

2  What could I gain from the strength of their hands,

kmen whose lvigor is gone?

3  Through want and hard hunger

they mgnaw nthe dry ground by night in owaste and desolation;

4  they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes,

and the roots of the broom tree for their food.1

5  pThey are driven out from human company;

they shout after them as after a thief.

6  In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell,

in holes of the earth and of qthe rocks.

7  Among the bushes they rbray;

under sthe nettles they huddle together.

8  A senseless, a nameless brood,

they have been whipped out of the land.

9  “And now I have become their tsong;

I am ua byword to them.

10  They vabhor me; they keep aloof from me;

they do not hesitate to wspit at the sight of me.

11  Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me,

they have cast off restraint2 in my presence.

12  On my xright hand the rabble rise;

they push away my feet;

they ycast up against me their ways of destruction.

13  They break up my path;

they promote my zcalamity;

they need no one to help them.

14  As through a wide abreach they come;

amid the crash they roll on.