lack · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
famine
וּבְכָפָ֗ןu.ve.kha.Fan
H3720
hunger (as making to stoop with emptiness and pain) · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
solitary
גַּ֫לְמ֥וּדgal.Mud
H1565
sterile (as wrapped up too hard) · adjective, masculine singular absolute
fleeing
הַֽעֹרְקִ֥יםha.'o.re.Kim
H6207
to gnaw · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
wilderness
צִיָּ֑הtzi.Yah
H6723
aridity · noun, common feminine singular absolute
time
אֶ֝֗מֶשׁ'E.mesh
H570
yesterday or last night · noun, common masculine singular construct
desolate
שׁוֹאָ֥הsho.'Ah
H7722
a tempest · noun, common feminine singular absolute
waste
וּמְשֹׁאָֽהu.me.sho.'Ah
H4875
(a) ruin · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
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 t…
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.
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.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 30:1-14
Here Job makes a very large and sad complaint of the great disgrace he had fallen into, from the height of honour and reputation, which was exceedingly grievous and cutting to such an ingenuous spirit as Job's was. Two things he insists upon as greatly aggravating his affliction: -
I. The meanness of the persons that affronted him. As it added much to his honour, in the day of his prosperity, that princes and nobles showed him respect and paid a deference to him, so it added no less to his disgrace in his adversity that he was spurned by the footmen, and trampled upon by those that were not only every way his inferiors, but were the meanest and most contemptible of all mankind. None can be…
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]. (Isa 30:33, Margin).
John Gill on Job 30:3
For want and famine they were solitary,.... The Targum interprets it, without children; but then this cannot be understood of the fathers; rather through famine and want they were reduced to the utmost extremity, and were as destitute of food as a rock, or hard flint, from whence nothing is to be had, as the word signifies, see Job 3:7;
fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste: to search and try what they could get there for their sustenance and relief, fleeing through fear of being taken up for some crimes committed, or through shame, on account of their miserable condition, not caring to be seen by men, and therefore fled into the wilderness to get what they could the…
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. For they do not seek those things, whereby they may train themselves to humility, may order their ways in tranquillity, keep patience, shew forth long suffering, but those alone which may prove them learned and talkers; they aim to know those things, by which they may seem to be in a special manner instructed. For they very often treat with boldness of the nature of the Divine Being, whilst, wretched as they are, they know not their own selves. And so they become 'barren by want and hunger,' because they desire to dive into those things, by which they should not bring forth the buddings of a good life. For the things which they dive into are beyond themselves. And whilst they make for that which they are unable to comprehend, they neglect to acquaint themselves with those things, by which they might have been instructed. Which same boldness of theirs the great Preacher rightly checks, saying, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly. Hence Solomon says, Set bounds to thine own wisdom. Hence again he says, Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it. For the sweetness of spiritual meaning he who seeks to eat beyond what he contains, even what he had eaten he 'vomiteth'; because whilst he seeks to make out things above, beyond his powers, even the things that he had made out aright, he forfeits. Hence he says again; As for one to eat much honey is not good, so he that would search out Majesty shall be crushed with glory. For the glory of the Invisible Creator, which when searched into with moderation lifts us up, being dived into beyond our powers bears us down. Therefore heretics, because in proportion as they aim to be more completely filled by sublime perception, so much the more entirely they become empty, have it rightly said concerning them, barren by want and hunger. Since by unbounded attempts the more they go after the knowledge of heavenly acquaintanceship, the more they lose it. But, on the other hand, they that in Holy Church are truly humble, and truly…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Rocks · Used as: Places for shelter by the poor in their distress — Used as: Places for shelter by the poor in their distress
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Keil & Delitzsch on Job 30:1-4
1 And now they who are younger than I have me in derision,
Those whose fathers I disdained To set with the dogs of my flock.
2 Yea, the strength of their hands, what should it profit me?
They have lost vigour and strength.
3 They are benumbed from want and hunger,
They who gnaw the steppe,
The darkness of the wilderness and waste;
4 They who pluck mallows in the thicket,
And the root of the broom is their bread.
With ועתּה, which also elsewhere expresses the turning-point from the premises to the conclusion, from accusation to the threat of punishment, and such like, Job here begins to bewail the sad turn which his former prosperity has taken. The first line of the verse, which is marked off…
In the past, the most honorable members of society spoke well of Job (29:11); now, the least honorable mocked him (30:1) and spit in his face (30:10). Cp. Pss 35:15; 69:12; Mark 14:65; 15:17-20.
Rashi on Job 30:3
Because of want and because of hunger they were in solitude.
they would flee to desolation For in his days, they would drive them from civilization to go in darkness.
darkness of waste and desolation broine in Old French, obscurity.
