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And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.
Job 30:9 · King James Version
Parallel translations
  • WEB “Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.
  • BSB And now they mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.
  • NKJV “Andnow I am their taunting song; Yes, I am their byword.
  • NASB ¶“And now I have become their taunt, And I have become a byword to them.
  • NLT “And now they mock me with vulgar songs! They taunt me!

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

Now Job has become the mocking song and byword of these very outcasts.

Overview

Turning from describing his tormentors to his own disgrace, Job laments that he is now the subject of their taunting songs and a proverb of scorn. The man once honored by princes is now ridiculed by the lowest. This depth of public shame foreshadows the greater humiliation of Christ, who became a byword and was mocked by all (Psalm 22:6-7).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 7

  • Lam 3:63Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.
  • Job 17:6He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.
  • Lam 3:14I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
  • Ps 69:11–12I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them.
  • Ps 35:15–16But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they did tear me, and ceased not:
  • Job 12:4I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn.
  • Ps 44:14Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Job 30:9YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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 30:9 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.