They mar my path. They promote my destruction without anyone’s help.
Parallel Translations
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They mar my path. They promote my destruction without anyone’s help.
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They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper.
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They break up my path, they further my calamity, even men that have no helper.
Cross-references (3)
Passages linked to Job 30:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 69:26 For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.
- Isaiah 3:12 As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. My people, those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths.
- Zechariah 1:15 I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain They need none to help them.
They need none to help them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 30:13 They mar my path, they set forward…
Job 30:13 They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper.
Ver. 13. They mar my paths] That is, all my studies and endeavours; they obstruct all passages whereby I might hope for help, as if they were resolved upon my ruin.
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They set forward my calamity] See Zec 1:15. {See Trapp on "Zec 1:15"} Or they count it profitable to them to vex me, so great is their malice against me. And though it do them no good, yet if they may do me hurt, they have enough.
They have no helper] Neither need they any to animate them or egg them on to mischief, who of themselves are overly forward, though but small and young, as Vajezatha, Haman’s youngest son, was. {See Trapp on "Est 9:9"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain As I am in great misery, so they endeavour…
As I am in great misery, so they endeavour to stop all my ways out of it, and to frustrate all my counsels and courses of obtaining relief or comfort. And although Job had no hopes of a temporal deliverance or restitution, yet he could not but observe and resent the malice of those who did their utmost to hinder it. Or the sense is, They pervert all my ways, putting perverse and false constructions upon them, censuring all my conscientious discharges of my duty to God and men, as nothing but craft and hypocrisy.
They set forward my calamity; increasing it by their bitter taunts, and invectives, and censures. Or, they profit by, or are pleased and satisfied with, my calamity. It doth them good at the heart to see me in misery.
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They have no helper: this is added as an aggravation of their malice; they impudently persisted in their malicious designs against me, though none encouraged or assisted them therein. Or, even they who had no helper, who were themselves in a forlorn and miserable condition; and yet they could so far forget or overlook their own calamities as to take pleasure in mine.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain They mar my path,.... Hindered him in the exercise…
They mar my path,.... Hindered him in the exercise of religious duties; would not suffer him to attend the ways and worship of God, or to walk in the paths of holiness and righteousness; or they reproached his holy walk and conversation, and treated it with contempt, and triumphed over religion and godliness:
they set forward my calamity; added affliction to affliction, increased his troubles by their reproaches and calumnies, and were pleased with it, as if it was profitable as well as pleasurable to them, see Zac 1:15;
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they have no helper; either no person of note to join them, and, to abet, assist, and encourage them; or they needed none, being forward enough of themselves to give him all the distress and disturbance they could, and he being so weak and unable to resist them; nor there is "no helper against them" (q); none to take Job's part against them, and deliver him out of their hands, see Ecc 4:1.
(q) "adversus illos", Beza, Schmidt, Michaelis; so Noldius, p. 514.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Mar - As I am in great misery, so…
Mar - As I am in great misery, so they endeavour to stop all my ways out of it. Set forward - Increasing it by their invectives, and censures. Even they - Who are themselves in a forlorn and miserable condition.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 13. They mar my path] They destroy the…
Verse 13. They mar my path] They destroy the way-marks, so that there is no safety in travelling through the deserts, the guide-posts and way-marks being gone.
These may be an allusion here to a besieged city: the besiegers strive by every means and way to distress the besieged; stopping up the fountains, breaking up the road, raising up towers to project arrows and stones into the city, called here raising up against it the ways of destruction, Job 30:12; preventing all succour and support.
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They have no helper.] "There is not an adviser among them."-Mr. Good. There is none to give them better instruction.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Job 30:13. They mar my path — Or, rather,…
Job 30:13. They mar my path — Or, rather, dig up my path. As I am in great misery, so they endeavour to stop all my ways out of it, and to frustrate all my counsels and methods for obtaining relief and comfort. The allusion to a place besieged is still carried on; the besiegers of which strive to cut off all communication of the besieged with the country around. Or, the sense may be, they pervert all my ways, putting perverse and false constructions on them, censuring my conscientious discharge of my duty to God and men as nothing but craft and hypocrisy. They set forward my calamity — Increasing it by bitter taunts, invectives, and censures. But יעילו, jognilu, may be rendered, They profit by, or are pleased with, my calamity. Heath reads this and the next clause, They triumph in my calamity: there is none who helpeth me against them.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain They mar my path - They break up all…
They mar my path - They break up all my plans. Perhaps here, also, the image is taken from war, and Job may represent himself as on a line of march, and he says that this rabble comes and breaks up his path altogether. They break down the bridges, and tear up the way, so that it is impossible to pass along. His plans of life were embarrassed by them, and they were to him a perpetual annoyance.
They set forward my calamity - Luther renders this part of the verse, “It was so easy for them to injure me, that they needed no help.” The literal translation of the Hebrew here would be, “they profit for my ruin;” that is, they bring as it were profit to my ruin; they help it on; they promote it. A similar expression occurs in Zec 1:15, “I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the afliction;” that is, they aided in urging it forward. The idea here is, that they hastened his fall. Instead of assisting him in any way, they contributed all they could to bring him down to the dust.
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They have no helper - Very various interpretations have been given of this phrase. It may mean, that they had done this alone, without the aid of others; or that they were persons who were held in abhorrence, and whom no one would assist; or that they were worthless and abandoned persons. Schultens has shown that the phrase, “one who has no helper,” is proverbial among the Arabs, and denotes a worthless person, or one of the lowest class. In proof of this, he quotes the Hamasa, which he thus translates, Videmus vos ignobiles, pauperes, quibus nullus ex reliquis hominibus adjutor. See, also, other similar expressions quoted by him from Arabic writings. The idea here then is, probably, that they were so worthless and abandoned that no one would help them - an expression denoting the utmost degradation.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Help them, or me. (Calmet) Septuagint, "they took off…
Help them, or me. (Calmet) Septuagint, "they took off my garment." (Haydock) --- Job seemed to be besieged, and could not escape. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Image of an assailed fortress continued. They tear up…
Image of an assailed fortress continued. They tear up the path by which succor might reach me.
set forward-- (Zac 1:15).
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they have no helper--Arabic proverb for contemptible persons. Yet even such afflict Job.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 13. They mar my path — In the process…
13. They mar my path — In the process of the siege they break up his paths, that is, the paths that lead to him; they “set forward his calamity.” — make his destruction more certain.
They have no helper — This ambiguous expression is probably a proverbial one for “the friendless” and “the helpless.” “They are too vile to have an ally.” Schultens gives several illustrations of such Oriental use: for instance, “We behold you ignoble, poor, without a helper among the rest of men.” Zockler’s interpretation, “they need no other help,” and that of Hitzig, “they do it without gain to themselves,” are sufficiently self condemned.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 13. They mar my path] Or, they break up…
13. They mar my path] Or, they break up my path. The reference can hardly be to the path or way leading to the besieged place (Job_30:12), so that the approach of succour is cut off; if the figure be continued the path must rather be the way of escape. Perhaps the figure is departed from in this clause, and the words may be taken more generally as meaning the path of his life, which they make it impossible to go in.
set forward my calamity] i. e. help on my downfall—aggravate my afflictions and advance the issue of them.
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they have no helper] Or, they who have no helper. The phrase “to have no helper” means to be one shunned and despised of all. Yet Such persons now persecute him with injurious insult. The words are an involuntary exclamation. The phrase might mean: against whom there is no helper; i. e. none to rescue Job from them, or to interfere in his behalf against them.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (13) They have no helper—i.e., probably without deriving therefrom…
(13) They have no helper—i.e., probably without deriving therefrom any help or advantage themselves.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain They mar my path; i.e. interfere with and frustrate…
They mar my path; i.e. interfere with and frustrate whatever I am bent on doing. They set forward my calamity, Professor Lee translates, "They profit by my ruin." They have no helper. If the text is sound, we must understand, "They do all this, they dare all this, even though they have no powerful men to aid them." But it is suspected that there is some corruption in the passage, and that the original gave the sense which is found in the Vulgate, "There is none to help me."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.