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Job 30:3

Poverty and the vulnerable

1 “But now they mock me, men younger than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to entrust with my sheep dogs.

2 What use to me was the strength of their hands, since their vigor had left them?

Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.

4 They plucked mallow among the shrubs, and the roots of the broom tree were their food.

5 They were banished from among men, shouted down like thieves,

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Here the Bible tells a story about someone else. Ask yourself what it can say to us today. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB
Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.
KJV
For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.
WEB
They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.
ASV
They are gaunt with want and famine; They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.
DARBY
Withered up through want and hunger, they flee into waste places long since desolate and desert:
BLB
in poverty and in harsh hunger, ones gnawing the dry ground by night, [in] ruin and desolation.
ÅB
De er uttæret av nød og sult; de gnager på den tørre mo, som allerede igår var ørk og øde;
OTB
Av fattigdom og sult er de avmagret—
De som gnager den tørre bakken om natten i ødeleggelse og øde.
B1930
De er uttæret av nød og sult; de gnager på den tørre mo, som allerede igår var ørk og øde;

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

  • Job 24:5

    Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go to work foraging for food; the wasteland is food for their children.

    Read in context

  • Hebrews 11:38

    The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and hid in caves and holes in the ground.

    Read in context

  • Job 24:13–16

    Then there are those who rebel against the light, not knowing its ways or staying on its paths.

    Read in context