They are driven out from among men. They cry after them as after a thief;
Parallel translations
- KJV They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;)
- BSB They were banished from among men, shouted down like thieves,
- NKJV They were driven out from among men, They shouted at them as at a thief.
- NASB “They are driven from the community; They shout against them as against a thief,
- NLT They are driven from human society, and people shout at them as if they were thieves.
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
Driven out from society, they were chased away with shouts as if they were thieves.
Overview
Job describes how these men were expelled from the community and pursued with cries of alarm like criminals. They were social outcasts whom respectable people drove away. The verse heightens the irony and pain of Job's situation, that those rejected by all now make sport of him in his affliction.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Dan 4:25that you shall be driven from men, and your dwelling shall be with the animals of the field, and you shall be made to eat grass as oxen, and shall be wet with the dew of the sky, and seven times shall pass over you; until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will.
- Gen 4:12–14From now on, when you till the ground, it won’t yield its strength to you. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth.”
- Dan 4:32–33You shall be driven from men; and your dwelling shall be with the animals of the field. You shall be made to eat grass as oxen. Seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will.”
- Ps 109:10Let his children be wandering beggars. Let them be sought from their ruins.
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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 30:5 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
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