Job 30:2–8

What could I gain from the strength of their hands,

men whose vigor is gone?

Through want and hard hunger

they gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation;

they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes,

and the roots of the broom tree for their food.

They are driven out from human company;

they shout after them as after a thief.

In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell,

in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

Among the bushes they bray;

under the nettles they huddle together.

A senseless, a nameless brood,

they have been whipped out of the land.

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 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 men, without even a name.

They were forced to leave the land.

A lot of good they are to me—

those worn-out wretches!

They are gaunt from poverty and hunger.

They claw the dry ground in desolate wastelands.

They pluck wild greens from among the bushes

and eat from the roots of broom trees.

They are driven from human society,

and people shout at them as if they were thieves.

So now they live in frightening ravines,

in caves and among the rocks.

They sound like animals howling among the bushes,

huddled together beneath the nettles.

They are nameless fools,

outcasts from society.

Moreover, what use to me is the strength of their hands?

With them, vigor is destroyed.

Through want and through barren hunger

they are gnawing in the dry region in the darkness of desolation and waste.

They are picking salt herbs, the leaves of bushes,

and the roots of broom trees to warm themselves.

They were driven out from fellow people;

they shout at them as at a thief,

so that they dwell

in holes of the ground and in the rocks.

They bray among the bushes;

they are gathered under the nettles.

A senseless crowd, yes, a disreputable brood,

they were cast out from the land.

Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me,

In whom old age was perished?

For want and famine they were solitary;

Fleeing into the wilderness

In former time desolate and waste.

Who cut up mallows by the bushes,

And juniper roots for their meat.

They were driven forth from among men,

(They cried after them as after a thief;)

To dwell in the clifts of the valleys,

In caves of the earth, and in the rocks.

Among the bushes they brayed;

Under the nettles they were gathered together.

They were children of fools, yea, children of base men:

They were viler than the earth.