Job 30:29
I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches.
BSB
ASV
I am a brother to jackals, And a companion to ostriches.
KJV
I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
I was a brother to dragons, and a companion to ostriches. The term 'dragons' is used to denote the cruel spirits who plot our destruction, or those persons who in the Holy Church imitate those spirits by living corruptly. The ostrich has wings and cannot fly, for it shows as it were the appearance of flight but never mounts upward into the air. Thus all hypocrites are like ostriches, who while they pretend holiness, never practice the reality of holiness.
I am a brother to dragons - That is, my loud complaints and cries resemble the doleful screams of wild animals, or of the most frightful monsters. The word “brother” is often used in this sense, to denote similarity in any respect. The word “dragons” here (תנין tannı̂yn), denotes properly a sea-monster, a great fish, a crocodile; or the fancied animal with wings called a dragon; see the notes at Isa 13:
"Dragon," Hebrew, tannim, usually means the crocodile; so perhaps here, its open jaws lifted towards heaven, and its noise making it seem as if it mourned over its fate [BOCHART].
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Psalms 44:19But You have crushed us in the lair of jackals; You have covered us with deepest darkness.
leads to
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.
Through
Psalms 102:6I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.
leads to
I chirp like a swallow or crane; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak as I look upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security.”
Herds will lie down in her midst, creatures of every kind. Both the desert owl and screech owl will roost atop her pillars. Their calls will sound from the window, but desolation will lie…
Through
Malachi 1:3but Esau I have hated, and I have made his mountains a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”
leads to
Egypt will become desolate, and Edom a desert wasteland, because of the violence done to the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood.
Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame and cut off forever.
Through
Micah 1:8Because of this I will lament and wail; I will walk barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and mourn like an ostrich.
leads to
Therefore I said, “Turn away from me, let me weep bitterly! Do not try to console me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”
the LORD had already spoken through Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go, remove the sackcloth from your waist and the sandals from your feet.” And Isaiah did so, walking around naked and barefoot.