the Week of Proper 24 / Ordinary 29
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King James Version
Job 30:3
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They are gaunt from poverty and hunger. They claw the dry ground in desolate wastelands.
They are gaunt with want and famine; they gnaw the dry ground; in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.
They are gaunt with want and famine; They gnaw the desert, in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.
They were thin from hunger and wandered the dry and ruined land at night.
gaunt with want and hunger, they would gnaw the parched land, in former time desolate and waste.
For want and famine [they were] solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.
They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.
"They are gaunt with want and famine; They gnaw the dry and barren ground by night in [the gloom of] waste and desolation.
Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation;
Thei weren bareyn for nedynesse and hungur; that gnawiden in wildirnesse, and weren pale for pouert and wretchidnesse;
Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.
They must claw the desert sand in the dark for something to satisfy their hunger.
They are gaunt with want and famine; They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.
They are wasted for need of food, biting the dry earth; their only hope of life is in the waste land.
Worn out by want and hunger, they gnaw the dry ground in the gloom of waste and desolation.
Withered up through want and hunger, they flee into waste places long since desolate and desert:
They are starving with nothing to eat, so they chew on the dry, ruined land.
They are gaunt with want and famine; they gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.
For want and famine they were solitarie: flying into the wildernesse in former time desolate and waste:
Their bodies are thin and in need of food. At night they bite the dry ground in the waste land.
Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry and desolate ground,
For pouertie and famine they were solitary, fleeing into the wildernes, which is darke, desolate and waste.
Yea, the strength of their hands, of what use would it have been to me?
They were so poor and hungry that they would gnaw dry roots— at night, in wild, desolate places.
In want and hunger, they were lean, - who used to gnaw the dry ground, a dark night of desolation!
Barren with want and hunger, who gnawed in the wilderness, disfigured with calamity and misery.
Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry and desolate ground;
For very miserie and hunger they fled into the wildernesse, a darke place, horrible and waste,
One is childless in want and famine, such as they that fled but lately the distress and misery of drought.
Emaciated from poverty and hunger,they gnawed the dry land,the desolate wasteland by night.
They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.
Through want and through barren hunger they are gnawing in the dry region in the darkness of desolation and waste.
They are lifeless with want and hunger, those who gnaw the dry ground which was formerly waste and desolation;
With want and with famine gloomy, Those fleeing to a dry place, Formerly a desolation and waste,
For very misery & honger, they wente aboute in the wildernesse like wretches & beggers,
"From poverty and famine they are gaunt, They who gnaw at the dry ground by night in waste and desolation,
They are gaunt from want and famine, Fleeing late to the wilderness, desolate and waste,
"From want and famine they are gaunt Who gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation,
From want and famine they are gaunt,Who gnaw the dry ground by night in destruction and desolation,
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
solitary: or, dark as the night, Job 24:13-16
fleeing into: Job 24:5, Hebrews 11:38
in former time: Heb. yesternight
Reciprocal: Job 15:23 - wandereth Psalms 109:10 - General Jeremiah 48:6 - be like Jeremiah 49:3 - run Ezekiel 26:20 - in places Daniel 4:25 - drive Daniel 5:21 - he was driven
Cross-References
And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?
And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.
When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife.
And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees.
And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said, We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem:
Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?
Gill's Notes on the Bible
For want and famine [they were] solitary,.... The Targum interprets it, without children; but then this cannot be understood of the fathers; rather through famine and want they were reduced to the utmost extremity, and were as destitute of food as a rock, or hard flint, from whence nothing is to be had, as the word signifies, see Job 3:7;
fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste: to search and try what they could get there for their sustenance and relief, fleeing through fear of being taken up for some crimes committed, or through shame, on account of their miserable condition, not caring to be seen by men, and therefore fled into the wilderness to get what they could there: but since men in want and famine usually make to cities, and places of resort, where provision may be expected; this may be interpreted not of their flying into the wilderness, though of their being there, perhaps banished thither, see Job 30:5; but of their "gnawing" q, or biting the dry and barren wilderness, and what they could find there; where having short commons, and hunger bitten, they bit close; which, though extremely desolate, they were glad to feed upon what they could light on there; such miserable beggarly creatures were they: and with this agrees what follows.
q הערקים ציה "qui rodebant in solitudine", V. L. "rodentes siccitatem", Schultens.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
For want and famine - By hunger and poverty their strength is wholly exhausted, and they are among the miserable outcasts of society. In order to show the depth to which he himself was sunk in public estimation, Job goes into a description of the state of these miserable wretches, and says that he was treated with contempt by the very scum of society, by those who were reduced to the most abject wretchedness, and who wandered in the deserts, subsisting on roots, without clothing, shelter, or home, and who were chased away by the respectable portion of the community as if they were thieves and robbers. The description is one of great power, and presents a sad picture of his own condition.
They were solitary - Margin, or, “dark as the night.” Hebrew גלמוד galmûd. This word properly means “hard,” and is applied to a dry, stony, barren soil. In Arabic it means a hard rock. “Umbreit.” In Job 3:7, it is applied to a night in which none are born. Here it seems to denote a countenance, dry, hard, emaciated with hunger. Jerome renders it, “steriles.” The Septuagint, ἄγονος agonos - “sterile.” Prof. Lee, “Hardly beset.” The meaning is, that they were greatly reduced - or dried up - by hunger and want. So Umbreit renders it, “gantz ausgedorrt - altogether dried up.”
Fleeing into the wilderness - Into the desert or lonely wastes. That is, they “fled” there to obtain, on what the desert produced, a scanty subsistence. Such is the usual explanation of the word rendered “flee” - ערק ‛âraq. But the Vulgate, the Syriac, and the Arabic, render it “gnawinq,” and this is followed by Umbreit, Noyes, Schultens, and Good. According to this the meaning is, that they were “gnawers of the desert;” that is, that they lived by gnawing the roots and shrubs which they found in the desert. This idea is much more expressive, and agrees with the connection. The word occurs in Hebrew only in this verse and in Job 30:17, where it is rendered “My sinews,” but which may more appropriately be rendered “My gnawing pains.” In the Syriac and Arabic the word means to “gnaw,” or “corrode,” as the leading signification, and as the sense of the word cannot be determined by its usage in the Hebrew, it is better to depend on the ancient versions, and on its use in the cognate languages. According to this, the idea is, that they picked up a scanty subsistence as they could find it, by gnawing roots and shrubs in the deserts.
In the former time - Margin, “yesternight.” The Hebrew word (אמשׁ 'emesh) means properly last night; the latter part of the preceding day, and then it is used to denote night or darkness in general. Gesenius supposes that this refers to “the night of desolation,” the pathless desert being strikingly compared by the Orientals with darkness. According to this, the idea is not that they had gone but yesterday into the desert, but that they went into the shades and solitudes of the wilderness, far from the homes of men. The sense then is, “They fled into the night of desolate wastes.”
Desolate and waste - In Hebrew the same word occurs in different forms, designed to give emphasis, and to describe the gloom and solitariness of the desert in the most impressive manner. We should express the same idea by saying that they hid themselves in the “shades” of the wilderness.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Job 30:3. Fleeing into the wilderness — Seeking something to sustain life even in the barren desert. This shows the extreme of want, when the desert is supposed to be the only place where any thing to sustain life can possibly be found.
