Job 30:14
in Job 30They advance as through a wide breach; through the ruins they keep rolling in.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
As through a wide breach they come: In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me.
KJV
They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.
⋯
This verse in Job 30
Commentary
8 notes on this verseThey came upon me as a wide breaking in - They storm me on every side. In the desolation they rolled themselves - When they had made the breach, they rolled in upon me as an irresistible torrent. There still appears to be an allusion to a besieged city: the sap, the breach, the storm, the flight, the pursuit, and the slaughter. See the following verse, Job 30:15 (note).
This site's exposition
The rabble arises at my right
on Job 30:12-14
“The rabble arises at my right”, the right hand being the place of an accuser in ancient legal custom, as Delitzsch notes from Psalm 109:6. These men without pity “build siege ramps against me” and “tear up my path”, “with no one to restrain them”.
This site's exposition
as through a wide breach
Barnes gives the Hebrew simply as like a wide breach they came. He pictures enemies pouring through a gap broken in a wall, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown compare Isaiah 30:13. The ruins are the crash of falling stone.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
So he continues, "they rushed in upon me like a breached wall or an open gate," as though there had not been an obstacle, either from the substance itself, of difficulty which is meant by the breached wall, or from human concern, which is meant …
As by a wall being broken, and a door being opened, they rushed in upon me, and were rolled down to my miseries. What is in this place designated by the title of 'a wall,' but the Redeemer of the human race, concerning whom it is said by the Prophet for the edifying of Holy Church, There shall be set in her a wall and a bulwark? For that same Redeemer is 'a wall' to us, Who forbids the rushing of evil spirits to reach to our hearts.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
But it is better to retain the image of Job 30:12, 13. "They came [upon me] as through a wide breach," namely, made by the besiegers in the wall of a fortress (Isa 30:13) [MAURER]. in the desolation--"Amidst the crash" of falling masonry, or "with a shout like the crash" of, &c.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
They came upon me as a wide breaking-in of waters - The Hebrew here is simply, “Like a wide breach they came,” and the reference may be, not to an inundation, as our translators supposed, but to an irruption made by a foe through a breach made in a wall. When such a wall fell, or when a breach was made in it, the besieging army would pour in in a tumultuous manner, and cut down all before them; compare Isa 30:13. This seems to be the idea here. The enemies of Job poured in upon him as if a breach was made in a wall. Formerly they were restrained by his rank and office, as a besieging army was by lofty walls; but now all these restraints were broken down, and they poured in upon him like a tumultuous army. In the desolation they rolled themselves upon me - Among the ruins they rolled tumultuous along; or they came pitching and tumbling in with the ruins of the wall. The image is taken from the act of sacking a city, where the besieging army, having made a breach in the wall, would seem to come tumbling into the heart of the city with the ruins of the wall. No time would be wasted, but they would follow suddenly and tumultuously upon the breach, and roll tumultuously along. The Chaldee renders this as if it referred to the rolling and tumultuous waves of the sea, and the Hebrew would admit of such a construction, but the above seems better to accord with the image which Job would be likely to use.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
As [through] a wide breach in a fence, through which everyone comes and passes through, so they come together against me to embarrass me.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כְּפֶ֣רֶץ | keferetz | like a breach | H6556 → | 19 times |
| רָחָ֣ב | rachav | wide | H7342 → | |
| יֶאֱתָ֑יוּ | yeetayu | they come | H857 → | 21 times |
| תַּ֥חַת | tachat | under | H8478 → | 505 times |
| שֹׁ֝אָ֗ה | shoah | devastation | H7722 → | 13 times |
| הִתְגַּלְגָּֽלוּ׃ | hitgalgalu | they have rolled themselves | H1556 → |
כְּפֶ֣רֶץlike a breach
keferetzH6556 →19 times
רָחָ֣בwide
rachavH7342 →
יֶאֱתָ֑יוּthey come
yeetayuH857 →21 times
תַּ֥חַתunder
tachatH8478 →505 times
שֹׁ֝אָ֗הdevastation
shoahH7722 →13 times
הִתְגַּלְגָּֽלוּ׃they have rolled themselves
hitgalgaluH1556 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Job 22:16They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were swept away by a flood.
it leads to
- Job 15:32
It will be paid in full before his time, and his branch will not flourish.
- Genesis 7:17–24
For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the earth.
- Matthew 24:37–39
As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man.
- 1 Peter 3:19–20
in whom He also went and preached to the spirits in prison
- 2 Peter 2:5
if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;
- Job 15:32
Through
Psalms 18:4The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of chaos overwhelmed me.
it leads to
- Psalms 116:3
The ropes of death entangled me; the anguish of Sheol overcame me; I was confronted by trouble and sorrow.
- Mark 14:33–34
He took with Him Peter, James, and John, and began to be deeply troubled and distressed.
- Matthew 27:24–25
When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but that instead a riot was breaking out, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he…
- Psalms 116:3
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XX; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.