Job 30:5

"They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom tree are their food."

Key Reflection

In Job 30:5, the author vividly describes the harsh and desperate conditions faced by the afflicted Job. The mention of salt herbs and the roots of broom trees as food indicates a diet typical of famine or extreme poverty. These plants were often considered bitter and unpalatable, symbolizing the dire circumstances Job endured. For the original audience, this imagery would have evoked the suffering and degradation experienced during times of scarcity, highlighting how even basic sustenance was scarce in Job's situation.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

They were driven forth from among men -As vagabonds and outcasts. They were regarded as unfit to live among the civilized and the orderly, and were expelled as nuisances. (They cried after them as after a thief.) -The inhabitants of the place where they lived drove them out with a loud outcry, as if they were thieves and robbers. A class of persons are here described who were mere vagrants and plunderers, and who were not allowed to dwell in civilized society, and it was one of the highest aggravations of the calamities of Job, that he was now treated with derision by such outcasts.

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