They are nameless fools, outcasts from society.
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.
- BSB A senseless and nameless brood, they were driven off the land.
- 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.
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 one who has it, but the punishment of fools is their folly.
- Isa 32:6For the fool will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice profanity, and to utter error against Yahweh, To make empty the soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
- Prov 1:7The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.
- Prov 1:22“How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate knowledge?
- Job 40:4“Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.
- Jer 7:18The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
- Mark 6:24She went out, and said to her mother, “What shall I ask?” She said, “The head of John the Baptizer.”
- 2 Chr 22:3He also walked in the ways of Ahab’s house, because his mother was his counselor in acting wickedly.
- Ps 15:4In whose eyes a vile man is despised, but who honors those who fear Yahweh; he who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and doesn’t change;
- Ps 49:10–13For he sees that wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless perish, and leave their wealth to others.
- 2 Kgs 8:18He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did Ahab’s house; for he married Ahab’s daughter. He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight.
- 2 Kgs 8:27He walked in the way of Ahab’s house, and did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, as did Ahab’s house; for he was the son-in-law of Ahab’s house.
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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.