Job 30

Job’s Final Defense Continued

1 "But now [those] younger than I, as far as days, laugh at me, whose fathers I rejected for setting with the dogs of my sheep and goats.

2 Moreover, {what use to me is the strength of their hands}? With them, vigor is destroyed.

3 Through want and through barren hunger they are gnawing [in the] dry region [in the] darkness of desolation and waste.

4 They are picking salt herbs, the leaves of bushes, and [the] roots of broom trees to warm themselves.

5 They were driven out from fellow people; they shout at them as [at] a thief,

6 {so that they dwell} [in] holes of [the] ground and [in the] rocks.

7 They bray among [the] bushes; they are gathered under [the] nettles.

8 {A senseless crowd}, yes, {a disreputable brood}, they were cast out from the land.

9 "But now I am their mocking song, and I have become a byword for them.

10 They abhor me; they keep aloof from me, and they do not withhold spit from my face

11 because he has loosened his bowstring and humbled me, and they have thrown off restraint {in my presence}.

12 On [the] right hand the brood rises up; {they put me to flight}, and they build up their {siege ramps} against me.

13 They destroy my path; they promote my destruction; they have no helper.

14 As [through] a wide breach they come; amid a crash they rush on.

15 Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as [by] the wind, and my hope of deliverance passed by like a cloud.

16 "And now my life is poured out onto me; days of misery have taken hold of me.

17 {At night I am in great pain}; my pains do not take a rest.

18 He seizes my clothing with {great power}; he grasps me by my tunic's collar.

19 He has cast me into the dirt, and I have become like dust and ashes.

20 I cry to you for help, but you do not answer me; I stand, and you [merely] look at me.

21 You have turned cruel to me; you persecute me with your hand's might.

22 You lift me up to [the] wind--you make me ride [it], and you toss me about [in] the storm.

23 Indeed, I know [that] you will bring me to death and [to the] house of assembly for all [the] living.

24 "Surely someone must not send a hand against [the] needy when, in his misfortune, [there is] a cry of help for them.

25 Have I not wept for {the unfortunate}, [and] grieved myself over the poor?

26 Indeed, I hoped for good, but evil came, and I waited for light, but darkness came.

27 My bowels are in turmoil, and they are not still; days of misery come to confront me.

28 I go [about] in mourning garb, [but] not in sunlight; I stand up in the assembly, [and] I cry for help.

29 I am a companion for [the] jackals and a companion for {ostriches}.

30 My skin turns black on me, and my bones burn with heat.

31 So my lyre came to be [used] for mourning, and my flute [for the] voice of [those who] weep.

Job 30 Commentary

Chapter 30

Job's honour is turned into contempt. (1-14) Job a burden to himself. (15-31)

Verses 1-14 Job contrasts his present condition with his former honour and authority. What little cause have men to be ambitious or proud of that which may be so easily lost, and what little confidence is to be put in it! We should not be cast down if we are despised, reviled, and hated by wicked men. We should look to Jesus, who endured the contradiction of sinners.

Verses 15-31 Job complains a great deal. Harbouring hard thoughts of God was the sin which did, at this time, most easily beset Job. When inward temptations join with outward calamities, the soul is hurried as in a tempest, and is filled with confusion. But woe be to those who really have God for an enemy! Compared with the awful state of ungodly men, what are all outward, or even inward temporal afflictions? There is something with which Job comforts himself, yet it is but a little. He foresees that death will be the end of all his troubles. God's wrath might bring him to death; but his soul would be safe and happy in the world of spirits. If none pity us, yet our God, who corrects, pities us, even as a father pitieth his own children. And let us look more to the things of eternity: then the believer will cease from mourning, and joyfully praise redeeming love.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "the strength of their hands what [is] for me"
• [b]. Hebrew "the"
• [c]. Literally "to dwell"
• [d]. Literally "sons of good-for-nothing"
• [e]. Literally "sons of no name"
• [f]. Literally "from my face"
• [g]. Hebrew "rise"
• [h]. Literally "my feet they send away"
• [i]. Literally "the ways/paths of their disaster"
• [j]. Literally "night my bones he pierces upon me," or "night pierces my bones upon me"
• [k]. Literally "much of strength"
• [l]. Hebrew "the dust"
• [m]. Hebrew "and"
• [n]. Literally "hard of day"
• [o]. Literally "daughters of ostrich"
• [p]. Hebrew "And"

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 30

Job in this chapter sets forth his then unhappy state and condition, in contrast with his former state of prosperity described in the preceding chapter: things had taken a strange turn, and were just the reverse of what they were before; he that was before in such high esteem and credit with all sorts of men, young and old, high and low, rich and poor, now is had in derision by the meanest and basest of men, whose characters are described, Job 30:1-8; and the instances of their contempt of him by words and gestures are given, Job 30:9-14; he who enjoyed so much ease of mind, and health of body, is now filled with distresses of soul, and bodily diseases, Job 30:15-19; and he who enjoyed so much of the presence of God, and communion with him, and of his love and favour, was now disregarded, and, as he thought, cruelly used by him, who not only had destroyed his substance, but was about to bring him to the grave, Job 30:20-24; all which came upon him, though he had a sympathizing heart with the poor, and them that were in trouble, and when he expected better things, Job 30:25-28; and he close the chapter, lamenting his sad and sorrowful circumstances, Job 30:29-31.