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“But now I am mocked by people younger than I, by young men whose fathers are not worthy to run with my sheepdogs.
Job 30:1 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB “But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.
  • KJV 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.
  • BSB “But now they mock me, men younger than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to entrust with my sheep dogs.
  • NKJV “But now they mock at me, men younger than I, Whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock.
  • NASB “But now those who are younger than I mock me, Whose fathers I refused to put with the dogs of my flock.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Now, Job laments, even worthless young men whose fathers he despised mock him.

Overview

With a sharp 'but now,' Job turns from his honored past to his humiliating present. Those he would not have trusted even with his sheep dogs now deride him, a complete reversal of his former esteem. This bitter contrast voices the depth of his suffering and the public shame that compounded his losses.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 15

  • Job 12:4I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.
  • Luke 23:35The people stood watching. The rulers with them also scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others. Let him save himself, if this is the Christ of God, his chosen one!”
  • Ps 69:12Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.
  • Ps 35:15–16But in my adversity, they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together. The attackers gathered themselves together against me, and I didn’t know it. They tore at me, and didn’t cease.
  • 2 Kgs 2:23He went up from there to Bethel. As he was going up by the way, some youths came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldy! Go up, you baldy!”
  • Isa 3:5The people will be oppressed, everyone by another, and everyone by his neighbor. The child will behave himself proudly against the old man, and the base against the honorable.
  • Mark 14:65Some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to beat him with fists, and to tell him, “Prophesy!” The officers struck him with the palms of their hands.
  • Job 19:13–19“He has put my brothers far from me. My acquaintances are wholly estranged from me.
  • Acts 17:5But the unpersuaded Jews took along some wicked men from the marketplace, and gathering a crowd, set the city in an uproar. Assaulting the house of Jason, they sought to bring them out to the people.
  • Titus 1:12One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons.”
  • Luke 23:18But they all cried out together, saying, “Away with this man! Release to us Barabbas!” —
  • Mark 15:17–20They clothed him with purple, and weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on him.
  • Job 29:8–10The young men saw me and hid themselves. The aged rose up and stood.
  • Luke 23:39One of the criminals who was hanged insulted him, saying, “If you are the Christ, save yourself and us!”
  • Luke 23:14and said to them, “You brought this man to me as one that perverts the people, and see, I have examined him before you, and found no basis for a charge against this man concerning those things of which you accuse him.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (4)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Job 30:1YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.

How Job 30:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.