Job 30 · Verse 3

Job 30:3

For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.
Job 30:3, King James Version

Job 30:3 in other translations

BSBGaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.
WEBThey are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.
ASVThey are gaunt with want and famine; They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of wasteness and desolation.
YLTWith want and with famine gloomy, Those fleeing to a dry place, Formerly a desolation and waste,
DARBYWithered up through want and hunger, they flee into waste places long since desolate and desert:
BBEThey are wasted for need of food, biting the dry earth; their only hope of life is in the waste land.
WebsterFor want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.

What does Job 30:3 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
3. 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. Better, as Syriac, Arabic, and Vulgate, "gnawers of the wilderness." What they gnaw follows in Job 30:4. in former time--literally, the "yesternight of desolation and waste" (the most utter desolation; Eze 6:14); that is, those deserts frightful as night to man, and even there from time immemorial. I think both ideas are in the words darkness [Gesenius] and antiquity [Umbreit]. (Is 30:33, Margin).

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 3 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.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Job 30:1-14

Job contrasts his present condition with his former honour and authority. What little cause have men to be ambitious or proud of that which may be so easily lost, and what little confidence is to be put in it! We should not be cast down if we are despised, reviled, and hated by wicked men. We should look to Jesus, who endured the contradiction of sinners.

Read the full comment on Job 30:1-14 →

Job 30:3 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

בְּחֶ֥סֶרbe.Che.serin povertyH2639
וּבְכָפָ֗ןu.ve.kha.Fanand in hungerH3720
גַּ֫לְמ֥וּדgal.MudbarrenH1565
הַֽעֹרְקִ֥יםha.'o.re.Kimthe [ones who] gnawH6207
צִיָּ֑הtzi.Yaha dry regionH6723
אֶ֝֗מֶשׁ'E.meshyesterday ofH570
שׁוֹאָ֥הsho.'AhruinH7722
וּמְשֹׁאָֽה\׃u.me.sho.'Ahand desolationH4875

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Job 30:3

  • Job 24:5

    Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children.

  • Hebrews 11:38

    (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

  • Job 24:13-16

    They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof. The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief. The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face. In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
solitary. or, dark as the night.
24:13-16
fleeing into.
24:5; Heb 11:38
in former time. Heb. yesternight.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Job 30:2

    Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?

  • Job 30:3

    For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.

  • Job 30:4

    Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.

Read all of Job 30

Job 30:3 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Por causa de la pobreza y del hambre andaban solos; huían á la soledad, á lugar tenebroso, asolado y desierto.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Desséchés par la disette et la faim, ils s’enfuient dans les lieux arides, dès longtemps désolés et déserts;
German
Elberfelder 1871		Durch Mangel und Hunger abgezehrt, nagen sie das dürre Land ab, welches längst öde und verödet ist;
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		egestate et fame steriles, qui rodebant in solitudine, squallentes calamitate et miseria.