6 This word, גַּלְמוּד (galmud), describes something as lowly, desolate, bare, gaunt like a rock.
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).
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.”
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.
10 Here too the form is the participle with the article.
11 Heb “gather mallow,” a plant which grows in salt marshes.
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).
13 The form simply is the plural verb, but it means those who drove them from society.
14 The text merely says “as thieves,” but it obviously compares the poor to the thieves.
15 This use of the infinitive construct expresses that they were compelled to do something (see §114.h, k).
16 The adjectives followed by a partitive genitive take on the emphasis of a superlative: “in the most horrible of valleys” (see §133.h).
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.
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).

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

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.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

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.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

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.

NLTNew Living Translation

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.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

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.

KJV 1900King James Version

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.

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