Job 30:14
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
They came on me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves on me.
American King James Version (AKJV)
They came on me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves on me.
American Standard Version (ASV)
As through a wide breach they come: In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me .
Basic English Translation (BBE)
As through a wide broken place in the wall they come on, I am overturned by the shock of their attack.
Webster's Revision
They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.
World English Bible
As through a wide breach they come, in the midst of the ruin they roll themselves in.
English Revised Version (ERV)
As through a wide breach they come: in the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me.
Clarke's Job 30:14 Bible Commentary
They came upon me as a wide breaking in - They storm me on every side.
In the desolation they rolled themselves - When they had made the breach, they rolled in upon me as an irresistible torrent. There still appears to be an allusion to a besieged city: the sap, the breach, the storm, the flight, the pursuit, and the slaughter. See the following verse, Job 30:15 (note).
Barnes's Job 30:14 Bible Commentary
They came upon me as a wide breaking-in of waters - The Hebrew here is simply, "Like a wide breach they came," and the reference may be, not to an inundation, as our translators supposed, but to an irruption made by a foe through a breach made in a wall. When such a wall fell, or when a breach was made in it, the besieging army would pour in in a tumultuous manner, and cut down all before them; compare Isaiah 30:13. This seems to be the idea here. The enemies of Job poured in upon him as if a breach was made in a wall. Formerly they were restrained by his rank and office, as a besieging army was by lofty walls; but now all these restraints were broken down, and they poured in upon him like a tumultuous army.
In the desolation they rolled themselves upon me - Among the ruins they rolled tumultuous along; or they came pitching and tumbling in with the ruins of the wall. The image is taken from the act of sacking a city, where the besieging army, having made a breach in the wall, would seem to come tumbling into the heart of the city with the ruins of the wall. No time would be wasted, but they would follow suddenly and tumultuously upon the breach, and roll tumultuously along. The Chaldee renders this as if it referred to the rolling and tumultuous waves of the sea, and the Hebrew would admit of such a construction, but the above seems better to accord with the image which Job would be likely to use.
Wesley's Job 30:14 Bible Commentary
30:14 Waste place - In the waste place; in that part of the bank which was broken down. They rolled - As the waters, come rolling in at the breach.