Bible Strands
Job 30:6
so that they lived on the slopes of the wadis, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Job addresses his companions while describing his own degraded condition. Immediately after noting he is banished and shouted at like thieves, he details the harsh terrain where the outcasts now reside.
The words — The verse highlights נְחָלִ֣ים (ne.cha.Lim), meaning “wadis,” and חֹרֵ֖י (cho.Rei), meaning “holes.” These terms specify the exposed ravines and subterranean cavities that serve as the outcasts’ shelter.
The thread — The motif of fleeing to rocky holes and wadis appears in Judges 6:2, where Israelites hide from Midianites, and Isaiah 2:19, where people seek caves to escape divine terror. 1 Samuel 22:1 also records David taking refuge in a cave when pursued.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that disgrace reduces human existence to survival in barren, unstable terrain. It frames humiliation not as abstract suffering but as physical displacement into places meant for concealment and decay.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.
Cross-references
- Judges 6:2 and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of the Midianites, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds.
- 1 Samuel 22:1 So David left Gath and took refuge in the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and the rest of his father’s household heard about it, they went down to him there.
- Isaiah 2:19 Men will flee to caves in the rocks and holes in the ground, away from the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty, when He rises to shake the earth.
- Revelation 6:15 Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the commanders, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and free man hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.