Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Job 30:14 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 14. 14They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Job 30:14 closes the thought unit with the words “They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon….” Job states “They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters” as one poetic claim in Job Describes Mockery and Social Reversal.
Read It With
- Job 30:1–30:14
Read Job 30:14 with 30:1–30:14. Read alone, “They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon…” could lose its speaker, the question or claim it develops, and the unit's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Job contrasts former honor with mockery from younger outcasts and portrays people spitting, loosening restraint, attacking, and widening his breach.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Job continues from Job 29:18–29:25: Job recalls expecting to die in his nest after many days and describes his words, presence, and counsel as rain and comfort to the community. Job 30:1–30:14 now develops the next distinct movement: Job contrasts former honor with mockery from younger outcasts and portrays people spitting, loosening restraint, attacking, and widening his breach. Within that relationship, Job 30:14 closes the thought unit through “They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon….”
Read Job 30:1–14 together
Why these verses belong together: Job 30:1–30:14 follows the pinned KJV paragraphing and holds together one sustained speech movement: “Job Describes Mockery and Social Reversal.” The next unit begins with a new stanza, question sequence, scene, speaker response, or rhetorical turn.
Verse 1. 1 But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.
Verse 2. 2 Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?
Verse 3. 3 For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.
Verse 4. 4 Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.
Verse 5. 5 They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;)
Verse 6. 6 To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.
Verse 7. 7 Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.
Verse 8. 8 They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.
Verse 9. 9 And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.
Verse 10. 10 They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.
Verse 11. 11 Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me.
Verse 12. 12 Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.
Verse 13. 13 They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper.
Verse 14. 14 They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.
What Remains True
Job contrasts former honor with mockery from younger outcasts and portrays people spitting, loosening restraint, attacking, and widening his breach. A speaker's pain or a difficult ancient image can be heard honestly without turning marginalized people, women, parents, or people with cognitive differences into contemptuous types. Job 30:14 carries that bounded truth through “They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon….”
How It Can Shape Life
- When teaching Job 30:1–30:14, name the speaker and rhetorical image, preserve the pain or textual difficulty, and explicitly refuse class stigma, misogyny, parental shaming, ableism, or dehumanization. Preserve this unit-specific boundary in the action: Job's pain is real, but his contemptuous description of marginalized groups is his rhetoric and must not license class stigma or dehumanization. The verse-specific evidence to retain is “They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon….”
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Job 30:1–30:14 — Job Describes Mockery and Social ReversalSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
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 ↗