Instead, I am considered a brother to jackals and a companion to owls.
Parallel translations
- WEB I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.
- KJV I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
- 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.
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 1:8For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will howl like the jackals, and moan like the daughters of owls.
- Ps 102:6I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places.
- Job 17:14If I have said to corruption, ‘You are my father;’ to the worm, ‘My mother,’ and ‘my sister;’
- Mal 1:3but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.”
- Ps 44:19Though you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.
- Isa 38:14I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.”
- Isa 13:21–22But wild animals of the desert will lie there, and their houses will be full of jackals. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will frolic 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.