Job 30:3

gaunt ¹  with want and hunger, they would gnaw ²  the parched land, in former time desolate and waste. ³ 

Haggard from want and hunger, they roamed the parched land in desolate wastelands at night.

"From want and famine they are gaunt Who gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation,

They are gaunt with hunger and flee to the deserts and the wastelands, desolate and gloomy.

Half-starved, scavenging the back alleys, howling at the moon;

They are wasted for need of food, biting the dry earth; their only hope of life is in the waste land.

Through want and hard hunger they gnaw the dry and desolate ground,

They are gaunt from want and famine, Fleeing late to the wilderness, desolate and waste,

gaunt ¹  with want and hunger, they would gnaw ²  the parched land, in former time desolate and waste. ³ 

¹ tn This word, גַּלְמוּד (galmud), describes something as lowly, desolate, bare, gaunt like a rock.

² tn The form is the plural participle with the definite article – “who gnaw.” The article, joined to the participle, joins on a new statement concerning a preceding noun (see GKC 404 §126.b).

³ tn The MT has “yesterday desolate and waste.” The word “yesterday” (אֶמֶשׁ, ’emesh) is strange here. Among the proposals for אֶמֶשׁ (’emesh), Duhm suggested יְמַשְּׁשׁוּ (yÿmashÿshu, “they grope”), which would require darkness; Pope renders “by night,” instead of “yesterday,” which evades the difficulty; and Fohrer suggested with more reason אֶרֶץ (’erets), “a desolate and waste land.” R. Gordis (Job, 331) suggests יָמִישׁוּ / יָמֻשׁוּ (yamishu/yamushu), “they wander off.”