Job 30:3
in Job 30Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
They are gaunt with want and famine; They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.
KJV
For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.
⋯
This verse in Job 30
Commentary
9 notes on this verseThey were ready to starve, for they would not dig, and to beg they were ashamed. Had they been brought to necessity by the providence of God, their neighbours would have sought them out as proper objects of charity and would have relieved them; but, being brought into straits by their own slothfulness and wastefulness, nobody was forward to relieve them.
This site's exposition
But now they mock me
on Job 30:1-3
“But now they mock me, men younger than I am” opens the reversal. Henry reads the move from the princes falling silent in chapter 29 to these youths jeering as the same honor seen from its opposite end. The fathers were broken men, since “their vigor had left them”.
This site's exposition
they gnawed the dry land
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown give the Hebrew for gaunt as hard as rock, dried up with hunger. Job pictures the poorest desert tribes. Clarke calls it the extreme of want, when only the dry wasteland is left to search for food.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Fifth, as to poverty he continues, "in want," from lack of possessions, "and hunger," as to the affliction which attends want, "they are sterile," for they are not capable of producing fruit. This is the contrary to the statement he made already, "The rock poured …
Who gnawed in solitude, being scurvy with calamity and misery, and chewed herbs and the barks of trees. And juniper roots for their meat. All heretics, whilst in sacred Revelation they make it their aim to dive into secrets of God beyond what they are capable of, by their hunger become barren.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
For want and famine they were solitary,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
solitary--literally, "hard as a rock"; so translate, rather, "dried up," emaciated with hunger. Job describes the rudest race of Bedouins of the desert [UMBREIT]. fleeing--So the Septuagint.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
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.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
For want and famine - By hunger and poverty their strength is wholly exhausted, and they are among the miserable outcasts of society.
The words behind it
8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| בְּחֶ֥סֶר | becheser | in poverty | H2639 → | |
| וּבְכָפָ֗ן | uvekhafan | and in hunger | H3720 → | |
| גַּ֫לְמ֥וּד | galmud | barren | H1565 → | 4 times |
| הַֽעֹרְקִ֥ים | haorekim | the [ones who] gnaw | H6207 → | |
| צִיָּ֑ה | tziyah | a dry region | H6723 → | |
| אֶ֝֗מֶשׁ | ʾemesh | yesterday of | H570 → | |
| שׁוֹאָ֥ה | shoah | ruin | H7722 → | 13 times |
| וּמְשֹׁאָֽה׃ | umeshoah | and desolation | H4875 → |
בְּחֶ֥סֶרin poverty
becheserH2639 →
וּבְכָפָ֗ןand in hunger
uvekhafanH3720 →
גַּ֫לְמ֥וּדbarren
galmudH1565 →4 times
הַֽעֹרְקִ֥יםthe [ones who] gnaw
haorekimH6207 →
צִיָּ֑הa dry region
tziyahH6723 →
אֶ֝֗מֶשׁyesterday of
ʾemeshH570 →
שׁוֹאָ֥הruin
shoahH7722 →13 times
וּמְשֹׁאָֽה׃and desolation
umeshoahH4875 →
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
Hebrews 11:38The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and hid in caves and holes in the ground.
it leads to
- 1 Kings 18:4
for when Jezebel had slaughtered the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty men per cave, providing them with food and water.)
- 1 Samuel 22:1
So David left Gath and took refuge in the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and the rest of his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there.
- 1 Kings 19:9
There Elijah entered a cave and spent the night. And the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
- Isaiah 57:1
The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; devout men are swept away, while no one considers that the righteous are guided from the presence of evil.
- 1 Samuel 24:1–3
After Saul had returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the wilderness of En-gedi.”
- 1 Kings 18:4
Through
Job 24:5Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go to work foraging for food; the wasteland is food for their children.
it leads to
- Psalms 104:23
Man goes forth to his work and to his labor until evening.
- Job 5:5
The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from the thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
- Job 39:5–7
Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from the harness?
- Psalms 104:23
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); 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.