A senseless and nameless brood, they were driven off the land.
Parallel translations
- WEB They are children of fools, yes, children of base men. They were flogged out of the land.
- KJV They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.
- NKJV They were sons of fools, Yes, sons of vile men; They were scourged from the land.
- NASB “Worthless fellows, even those without a name, They were cast out from the land.
- NLT They are nameless fools, outcasts from society.
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
They were a senseless, disreputable brood, beaten and driven out of the land.
Overview
Job sums up his mockers as godless fools without name or honor, expelled from society by force. The phrase 'children of fools' marks them as morally and socially worthless in his eyes. This concluding portrait of their baseness magnifies the indignity of Job's present humiliation at their hands.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Prov 16:22Understanding is a fountain of life to its possessor, but the discipline of fools is folly.
- Isa 32:6For a fool speaks foolishness; his mind plots iniquity. He practices ungodliness and speaks falsely about the LORD; he leaves the hungry empty and deprives the thirsty of drink.
- Prov 1:7The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
- Prov 1:22“How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge?
- Job 40:4“Behold, I am insignificant. How can I reply to You? I place my hand over my mouth.
- Jer 7:18The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven; they pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger.
- Mark 6:24Then she went out and asked her mother, “What should I request?” And her mother answered, “The head of John the Baptist.”
- 2 Chr 22:3Ahaziah also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counselor in wickedness.
- Ps 15:4who despises the vile but honors those who fear the LORD, who does not revise a costly oath,
- Ps 49:10–13For it is clear that wise men die, and the foolish and the senseless both perish and leave their wealth to others.
- 2 Kgs 8:18And Jehoram walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done. For he married a daughter of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the LORD.
- 2 Kgs 8:27And Ahaziah walked in the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the LORD like the house of Ahab, for he was a son-in-law of the house of Ahab.
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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 30:8 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.