to reside or permanently stay (literally or figurativel… · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
clifts
בַּעֲר֣וּץba.'a.Rutz
H6178
feared · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
valleys
נְחָלִ֣יםne.cha.Lim
H5158
a stream · noun, common masculine plural absolute
caves
חֹרֵ֖יcho.Rei
H2356
a cavity · noun, common masculine plural construct
earth
עָפָ֣ר'a.Far
H6083
dust (as powdered or gray) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
rocks
וְכֵפִֽיםve.khe.Fim
H3710
a hollow rock · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural 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
Judges 6:2 And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel: and because of the Midianites the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mo…
1 Samuel 22:1-2 David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down…
Isaiah 2:19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when…
Revelation 6:15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every fr…
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…
They are forced "to dwell."
cliffs of the valleys--rather, "in the gloomy valleys"; literally, "in the gloom of the valleys," or wadies. To dwell in valleys is, in the East, a mark of wretchedness. The troglodytes, in parts of Arabia, lived in such dwellings as caves.
John Gill on Job 30:6
To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys,.... Or "brooks" (l), in such hollow places as were made by floods and streams of waters:
in caves of the earth, and in the rocks; where they betook themselves for fear of men, and through shame, being naked and miserable not fit to be seen: Job has respect to the Horites and Troglodytes, his neighbours, who dwelt in such places chiefly.
(l) "torrentium", Tigurine version, Pagninus, Montanus, &c.
Keil & Delitzsch on Job 30:5-8
5 They are driven forth from society,
They cry after them as after a thief.
6 In the most dismal valleys they must dwell,
In holes of the earth and in rocks.
7 Among the bushes they croak,
Under nettles are they poured forth,
8 Sons of fools, yea sons of base men:
They are driven forth out of the land! -
If, coming forth from their lurking-places, they allow themselves to be seen in the villages of the plain or in the towns, they are driven forth from among men, e medio pelluntur (to use a Ciceronian phrase). גּו (Syr. gau, Arab. gaww, guww) is that which is internal, here the circle of social life, the organized human community. This expression also is Hebraeo-Arabic; for if one contrasts…
The Church Fathers
The words "under the rocks and the thorny bushes," that is, those, who are on the prowl in the mountains and the deserts, live on the fruits of thorny bushes because of their destitution.
They shall dwell in the desert places of the torrents, and in the caves of the earth, or upon the ground. We give the name of 'torrents' to the brooks, that are gathered by the winter rains, which likewise at certain seasons are dried up. Thus with justice the framers of wrong doctrines are called 'torrents'; because being cold to the warmth of charity, they grow to a height in the deadness of the winter season; because they do not flow out with perpetual fulness, but by the pleadings of Catholics, as by summer suns, are dried up. And indeed the fabricators of wrong doctrines springing up against Holy Church, are already made an end of by the heat of truth, yet notwithstanding the things which they taught their disciples do not cease to maintain and to defend. Thus then they that follow the errors of those persons 'dwell in the desert places of torrents,' i.e. put their trust in the preaching of those, whose effusions are already by the answering and reasoning of Catholics dried up. Now what else do we take 'the caves of the earth' for, but the hidden preachings of heretics? For heretics meet together in secret conclaves in such sort, that the reverence, which they cannot invest their erring belief with by reason, they may by concealment, and that to weak souls the speech of pervertedness may appear more to be treated with awe in proportion as it is secret. Hence in Solomon the woman as a type of heresy persuades, saying, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. Which self-same secret preachings 'Truth' abhors, saying, Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not. And again; Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert, go not forth; Behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the East, and shineth even unto the West: so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. So then that is 'in the secret chambers' there, which here is phrased in 'caves.' Thus heretics 'dwell in caves,' because they generally conceal their error by preachings in secret; that in the degree that they forbear to shew themselves to the more learned and wiser sort, they may the more irresistibly draw to them the uninstructed. Whence also the words are rightly brought in next; Or upon the gravel. For we call by the name of 'gravel' those very little stones which the…
Dictionary and topics
Ut — (wooded).
Rocks · Used as: Places for shelter by the poor in their distress — Used as: Places for shelter by the poor in their distress
Valleys · Abounded with: Rocks and caves — Abounded with: Rocks and caves
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).
live in frightening ravines, in caves and among the rocks: The wretched life of Job’s mockers resembled Israel’s situation under Midianite oppression (Judg 6:2), David’s life as he fled from Saul (1 Sam 22:1-2), and Elijah’s life as he awaited the Lord’s instruction (1 Kgs 17:3-8).
Rashi on Job 30:6
in the crevices of the valleys There is a salty land that splits, where they would lie in the holes in the earth and the holes in the crevices of the rocks.
and rocks Heb. וכפים, the Aramaic translation of סלעים, rocks. (Another explanation:) in the crevice of the streams That is the crevice that the stream makes around itself.
