Logos Bible Study

Job 30:2–8

The NET BibleOther versions

English

Arabic

Czech

French

German

Hebrew

Hungarian

Italian

Korean

Latin

Portuguese

Russian

Simplified Chinese

Spanish

Traditional Chinese

30:2Moreover, the strength of their4 hands—

what use was it to me?

Men whose strength5 had perished;

30:3gaunt6 with want and hunger,

they would gnaw7 the parched land,

in former time desolate and waste.8

30:4By the brush9 they would gather10 herbs from the salt marshes,11

and the root of the broom tree was their food.

30:5They were banished from the community12—

people13 shouted at them

like they would shout at thieves14—

30:6so that they had to live15

in the dry stream beds,16

in the holes of the ground, and among the rocks.

30:7They brayed17 like animals among the bushes

and were huddled together18 under the nettles.

30:8Sons of senseless and nameless people,19

they were driven out of the land with whips.20

Read in Logos

Footnotes

  1. 4 The reference is to the fathers of the scorners, who are here regarded as weak and worthless.
  2. 5 The word כֶּלַח (kelakh) only occurs in Job 5:26; but the Arabic cognate gives this meaning “strength.” Others suggest כָּלַח (kalakh, “old age”), ֹכּל־חַיִל (kol-khayil, “all vigor”), כֹּל־לֵחַ (kol-leakh, “all freshness”), and the like. But there is no reason for such emendation.
  3. 6 This word, גַּלְמוּד (galmud), describes something as lowly, desolate, bare, gaunt like a rock.
  4. 7 The form is the plural participle with the definite article—“who gnaw.” The article, joined to the participle, joins on a new statement concerning a preceding noun (see §126.b).
  5. 8 The has “yesterday desolate and waste.” The word “yesterday” (אֶמֶשׁ, ’emesh) is strange here. Among the proposals for אֶמֶשׁ (’emesh), Duhm suggested יְמַשְּׁשׁוּ (yémashéshu, “they grope”), which would require darkness; Pope renders “by night,” instead of “yesterday,” which evades the difficulty; and Fohrer suggested with more reason אֶרֶץ (’erets), “a desolate and waste land.” R. Gordis (Job, 331) suggests יָמִישׁוּ / יָמֻשׁוּ (yamishu/yamushu), “they wander off.”
  6. 9 Or “the leaves of bushes” (ESV), a possibility dating back to Saadia and discussed by G. R. Driver and G. B. Gray (Job [], 2:) in their philological notes.
  7. 10 Here too the form is the participle with the article.
  8. 11 Heb “gather mallow,” a plant which grows in salt marshes.
  9. 12 The word גֵּו (gev) is an Aramaic term meaning “midst,” indicating “midst [of society].” But there is also a Phoenician word that means “community” ( 48).
  10. 13 The form simply is the plural verb, but it means those who drove them from society.
  11. 14 The text merely says “as thieves,” but it obviously compares the poor to the thieves.
  12. 15 This use of the infinitive construct expresses that they were compelled to do something (see §114.h, k).
  13. 16 The adjectives followed by a partitive genitive take on the emphasis of a superlative: “in the most horrible of valleys” (see §133.h).
  14. 17 The verb נָהַק (nahaq) means “to bray.” It has cognates in Arabic, Aramaic, and Ugaritic, so there is no need for emendation here. It is the sign of an animal’s hunger. In the translation the words “like animals” are supplied to clarify the metaphor for the modern reader.
  15. 18 The Pual of the verb סָפַח (safakh, “to join”) also brings out the passivity of these people—“they were huddled together” (E. Dhorme, Job, 434).
  16. 19 The “sons of the senseless” (נָבָל, naval) means they were mentally and morally base and defective; and “sons of no-name” means without honor and respect, worthless (because not named).
  17. 20 Heb “they were whipped from the land” (cf. ESV) or “they were cast out from the land” ( נכא). J. E. Hartley (Job [], ) follows Gordis suggests that the meaning is “brought lower than the ground.”

The NET Bible First Edition, Copyright 1996-2005 by Biblical Studies Press

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

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.

Copyright 2001 Crossway Bibles

NIVNew International Version (2011)

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 bush.

They were banished from human society,

shouted at as if they were thieves.

They were forced to live in the dry stream beds,

among the rocks and in holes in the ground.

They brayed among the bushes

and huddled in the undergrowth.

A base and nameless brood,

they were driven out of the land.

Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 Biblica, Inc.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

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.

Copyright 2017 Holman Bible Publishers

NLTNew Living Translation

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.

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

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.

Copyright 2012 Lexham Press

KJV 1900King James Version

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.

Public Domain