Job 30:1–30:14, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Job 30:1–30:14
Job Describes Mockery and Social Reversal
The reversal is social before it is theological
Job now says those younger than he hold him in derision, men whose fathers he would have disdained to set with the dogs of his flock. He describes them as driven out, living in gullies, braying among bushes, children of fools, viler than the earth. They spit, they make him a byword, they loathe him, they do not spare to spit in his face.
Because God has loosed his cord and afflicted him, they have also let loose. They come on the right hand as a brood, push away his feet, cast up against him their ways of destruction, break up his path, add to his calamity, and roll in upon him as through a wide breach.
The pain is real, and so is the contempt in Job's mouth
Mockery of a sick man is cruelty. Job is not imagining that his honor is gone. The unit must be heard as a report of humiliation.
Job's language about outcasts is his rhetoric under shame, not a holy ranking of classes. The book does not ask later readers to share his disdain for people who sleep in ravines. Suffering does not license dehumanizing the already pushed-out.
How this should shape us
Stand with a humiliated person without inheriting every sneer that pain can speak. Do not romanticize mockers, and do not turn Job's class language into a map of who counts as human.
Teach it back
Explain Job 30:1–30:14 in your own words. Name the speaker, the unit's place in Job, one source-controlled textual or literary observation, one uncertainty, and one harmful use the passage does not authorize.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Job 30:1–30:14, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 30:1–30:14
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 30:1–30:14.
Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 30:1–30:14
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Enter the Bible Job course, Outline and Theological Themes: wisdom poem and Job's final defense; applied to Job 30:1–30:14
Supports: A fully inspected critical alternative on the framework, litigation, human condition, divine speeches, and moral evaluation.
Harvey, 'Questions on the Book of Job,' Religious Studies 59.S1 (2023), pp. S7-S16, framework-versus-dialogue argument and Job's litigation; applied to Job 30:1–30:14
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Job 30:1–30:14, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 30:1–30:14
Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Job
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006; current official PDF
Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 30:1–30:14.
Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 30:1–30:14
Open the official NET Job PDF ↗modern scholarly book course
Job course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Daniel J. Simundson and Kathryn Schifferdecker
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, current online edition inspected 2026
Supports: Book-level and passage-level literary, historical, theological, and pastoral synthesis with speaker distinctions and visible uncertainty.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Job course, Outline and Theological Themes: wisdom poem and Job's final defense; applied to Job 30:1–30:14
Open the Enter the Bible Job course ↗open access philosophical and literary article
Questions on the Book of Job
Warren Zev Harvey
Religious Studies 59, Special Issue S1, 2023
Supports: A fully inspected critical alternative on the framework, litigation, human condition, divine speeches, and moral evaluation.
Exact location: Harvey, 'Questions on the Book of Job,' Religious Studies 59.S1 (2023), pp. S7-S16, framework-versus-dialogue argument and Job's litigation; applied to Job 30:1–30:14
Open the Cambridge Job article ↗