They came on me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves on me.
They came on me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves on me.
As through a wide breach they come: In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me .
As through a wide broken place in the wall they come on, I am overturned by the shock of their attack.
They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.
As through a wide breach they come, in the midst of the ruin they roll themselves in.
As through a wide breach they come: in the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me.
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).
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.
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.