- "But now those younger than I mock me, Whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock.
- "Indeed, what good was the strength of their hands to me? Vigor had perished from them.
- "From want and famine they are gaunt Who gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation,
- Who pluck mallow by the bushes, And whose food is the root of the broom shrub.
- "They are driven from the community; They shout against them as against a thief,
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- "But now they mock me, men younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
- Of what use was the strength of their hands to me, since their vigor had gone from them?
- Haggard from want and hunger, they roamed the parched land in desolate wastelands at night.
- In the brush they gathered salt herbs, and their food was the root of the broom tree.
- They were banished from their fellow men, shouted at as if they were thieves.
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