Job 30:4 Meaning and Explanation
“Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Reduced to eating wild herbs and bitter roots, these outcasts foraged the desert scrub simply to stay alive.
What Does Job 30:4 Mean?
Job details the diet of the wilderness poor: salt-herbs plucked among the bushes and the roots of the broom shrub for food. These are famine fare, the desperate provision of those with nothing. The picture is meant to show how low were the people from whom his tormentors came.
Even in this grim catalog there is a witness to the persistence of life and the lengths to which need will drive a soul. Job is not gloating; he is measuring the depth of his own fall by setting it against theirs. The reader is reminded that bread is a gift, never a given, and that the One who satisfies the hungry soul with good things is to be thanked at every plain meal, and trusted when the table is bare.
Frequently Asked Questions About Job 30:4
What does Job 30:4 mean?
Reduced to eating wild herbs and bitter roots, these outcasts foraged the desert scrub simply to stay alive.