¶“And now I have become their taunt, And I have become a byword to them.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.
- KJV And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.
- 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.
- 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 3:63You see their sitting down and their rising up; I am their song.
- Job 17:6“But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.
- Lam 3:14I have become a derision to all my people, and their song all day long.
- Ps 69:11–12When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.
- Ps 35:15–16But in my adversity, they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together. The attackers gathered themselves together against me, and I didn’t know it. They tore at me, and didn’t cease.
- Job 12:4I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.
- Ps 44:14You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.
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 30:9 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
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