Thematic Bible: Loss of friends

But now they who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. Yes, how could the strength of their hands profit me? They were men whose ripe age and vigor had perished. They are gaunt with want and famine; they gnaw the dry and barren ground or flee into the wilderness, into the gloom of wasteness and desolation. read more.
They pluck saltwort or mallows among the bushes, and roots of the broom for their food or to warm them. They are driven from among men, who shout after them as after a thief. They must dwell in the clefts of frightful valleys (gullies made by torrents) and in holes of the earth and of the rocks. Among the bushes they bray and howl [like wild animals]; beneath the prickly scrub they fling themselves and huddle together. Sons of the worthless and nameless, they have been scourged and crushed out of the land. And now I have become their song; yes, I am a byword to them. They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and do not refrain from spitting in my face or at the sight of me.