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Job 30:4

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

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

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,

6 so that they lived on the slopes of the wadis, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.

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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
They plucked mallow among the shrubs, and the roots of the broom tree were their food.
KJV
Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.
WEB
They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom tree are their food.
ASV
They pluck salt-wort by the bushes; And the roots of the broom are their food.
DARBY
They gather the salt-wort among the bushes, and the roots of the broom for their food.
BLB
They [are] plucking mallow among the brush, and the root of the broom tree is their bread.
ÅB
de plukker melde innunder buskene, og gyvelbuskens røtter er deres brød.
OTB
De som samler salturt ved buskene,
og hvis mat er roten av gyvelbusken.
B1930
de plukker melde innunder buskene, og gyvelbuskens røtter er deres brød.

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

  • Luke 15:16

    He longed to fill his belly with the pods the pigs were eating, but no one would give him a thing.

    Read in context

  • Amos 7:14

    “I was not a prophet,” Amos replied, “nor was I the son of a prophet; rather, I was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore-fig trees.

    Read in context

  • 2 Kings 4:38–39

    When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting at his feet, he said to his attendant, “Put on the large pot and boil some stew for the sons of the prophets.”

    Read in context