I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
Parallel translations
- WEB I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.
- BSB I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches.
- NKJV I am a brother of jackals, And a companion of ostriches.
- NASB “I have become a brother to jackals, And a companion of ostriches.
- NLT Instead, I am considered a brother to jackals and a companion to owls.
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
Job calls himself a brother to jackals and a companion to ostriches. He likens his mournful cries and isolation to the desolate creatures of the wilderness.
Overview
By comparing himself to jackals and ostriches, animals associated with wailing cries and lonely wastelands, Job expresses how his grief has driven him into desolation and estrangement from human company. The imagery conveys both the sound of his lament and his social exile. His isolation echoes the rejection later endured by Christ, who was despised and forsaken yet bore that loneliness to bring estranged sinners into God's family.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Mic 1:8Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.
- Ps 102:6I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert.
- Job 17:14I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.
- Mal 1:3And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
- Ps 44:19Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
- Isa 38:14Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.
- Isa 13:21–22But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 30:29 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.