What is the meaning of Job 30:4? They plucked mallow among the shrubs • Job literally points to men so poor they live off “mallow,” a wild, salty plant that grows where little else survives (cf. Job 24:5 “Like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go about their labor foraging food”). • The scene underscores total deprivation; they are not harvesting crops but scavenging what others overlook (2 Kings 4:39 tells of hungry men gathering “wild gourds” because nothing better could be found). • These outcasts dwell “among the shrubs,” living on the margins of society rather than on cultivated land—an image that echoes Genesis 3:18, where thorns and thistles mark a cursed ground. • Job’s point: the very ones reduced to this misery now mock him (Job 30:1), deepening his humiliation. and the roots of the broom tree were their food • The broom tree, a desert shrub with deep roots, offered little nourishment; people dug its roots only in dire straits. Eating them signals famine‐level hardship (Lamentations 4:9, where starvation is worse than the sword). • Psalm 120:4 links broom wood to “coals of a broom tree,” prized for hot, long‐lasting fires, but here Job mentions roots, not wood—reminding us these men consume what is normally used as fuel, not food. • Elijah found shelter under a broom tree when he felt abandoned (1 Kings 19:4–5); likewise, Job feels abandoned, but he also sees how the destitute survive on what little that plant provides. • The verse thus paints a double picture: Job views himself as lower than low, while even society’s lowest now regard him as beneath them. summary Job 30:4 gives a stark, literal snapshot of utter poverty: scavenging wild mallow and digging up broom tree roots for food. By describing those who live like this—and noting that they now ridicule him—Job stresses how far his honor has fallen. The verse reminds readers that God’s people may endure seasons when circumstances seem upside down, yet Scripture assures us His justice will ultimately prevail (James 5:11). |
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