Job 30:1

Job’s Present Misery

30:1 “But now they mock me, those who are younger ¹  than I,

whose fathers I disdained too much ² 

to put with my sheep dogs. ³ 

Job 30:12

30:12 On my right the young rabble ⁴  rise up;

they drive me from place to place, ⁵ 

and build up siege ramps ⁶  against me. ⁷ 

Job 30:2

30:2 Moreover, the strength of their ⁸  hands –

what use was it to me?

Men whose strength ⁹  had perished;

Job 2:1

Satan’s Additional Charge

2:1 Again the day came when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also arrived among them to present himself before the Lord. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 3:5

3:5 The people will treat each other harshly;

men will oppose each other;

neighbors will fight. ¹¹ 

Youths will proudly defy the elderly

and riffraff will challenge those who were once respected. ¹² 

[30:1]  ¹ tn Heb “smaller than I for days.”

[30:1]  ² tn Heb “who I disdained their fathers to set…,” meaning “whose fathers I disdained to set.” The relative clause modifies the young fellows who mock; it explains that Job did not think highly enough of them to put them with the dogs. The next verse will explain why.

[30:1]  ³ sn Job is mocked by young fellows who come from low extraction. They mocked their elders and their betters. The scorn is strong here – dogs were despised as scavengers.

[30:12]  ⁴ tn This Hebrew word occurs only here. The word פִּרְחַח (pirkhakh, “young rabble”) is a quadriliteral, from פָּרַח (parakh, “to bud”) The derivative אֶפְרֹחַ (’efroakh) in the Bible refers to a young bird. In Arabic farhun means both “young bird” and “base man.” Perhaps “young rabble” is the best meaning here (see R. Gordis, Job, 333).

[30:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “they cast off my feet” or “they send my feet away.” Many delete the line as troubling and superfluous. E. Dhorme (Job, 438) forces the lines to say “they draw my feet into a net.”

[30:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “paths of their destruction” or “their destructive paths.”

[30:12]  ⁷ sn See Job 19:12.

[30:2]  ⁸ tn The reference is to the fathers of the scorners, who are here regarded as weak and worthless.

[30:2]  ⁹ tn The word כֶּלַח (kelakh) only occurs in Job 5:26; but the Arabic cognate gives this meaning “strength.” Others suggest כָּלַח (kalakh, “old age”), ֹכּל־חַיִל (kol-khayil, “all vigor”), כֹּל־לֵחַ (kol-leakh, “all freshness”), and the like. But there is no reason for such emendation.

[2:1]  ¹⁰ tc This last purpose clause has been omitted in some Greek versions.

[3:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “man against man, and a man against his neighbor.”

[3:5]  ¹² tn Heb “and those lightly esteemed those who are respected.” The verb רָהַב (rahav) does double duty in the parallelism.