KJV ORIGINAL
Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.
Close to the original. Clear modern English.
✦ MADE SIMPLE
They gather salt plants from the bushes and eat juniper roots for food.
⚡ THE BOTTOM LINE
This verse describes people so desperately poor that they survive by eating wild plants and roots that grow in the wilderness.
📚 Historical Context
Job is describing the outcasts of society who have been driven to the margins and forced to survive on whatever they can forage. In ancient times, eating mallows (a salty marsh plant) and juniper roots was a sign of extreme poverty and social rejection, as these were considered food for the desperate. This comes during Job's lament about how his social status has completely collapsed.
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