Job 30

Job's Present State Is Humiliating

1 "But now those younger than I ¹mock me, Whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock.

2 "Indeed, what good was the strength of their hands to me? Vigor had perished from them.

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

4 Who pluck mallow by the bushes, And whose food is the root of the broom shrub.

5 "They are driven from the community; They shout against them as against a thief,

6 So that they dwell in dreadful valleys, In holes of the earth and of the rocks.

7 "Among the bushes they cry out; Under the nettles they are gathered together.

8 "Fools *, even those without a name, They were scourged from the land.

9 "And now I have become their ²taunt, I have even become a ³byword to them.

10 "They abhor me and stand aloof from me, And they do not refrain from ⁴spitting at my face.

11 "Because He has loosed His bowstring and ⁵afflicted me, They have cast off ⁶the bridle before * me.

12 "On the right hand their brood arises; They ⁷thrust aside my feet ⁸and build up against me their ways of destruction.

13 "They ⁹break up my path, They profit from my destruction; No one restrains them.

14 "As through a wide breach they come, Amid the tempest they roll on.

15 "¹⁰Terrors are turned against me; They pursue my honor as the wind, And my prosperity has passed away ¹¹like a cloud.

16 "And now ¹²my soul is poured out within me; Days of affliction have seized me.

17 "At night it pierces ¹³my bones within * me, And my gnawing pains take no rest.

18 "By a great force my garment is ¹⁴distorted; It binds me about as the collar of my coat.

19 "He has cast me into the ¹⁵mire, And I have become like dust and ashes.

20 "I ¹⁶cry out to You for help, but You do not answer me; I stand up, and You turn Your attention against me.

21 "You have become cruel to me; With the might of Your hand You ¹⁷persecute me.

22 "You ¹⁸lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride; And You dissolve me in a storm.

23 "For I know that You ¹⁹will bring me to death And to the ²⁰house of meeting for all living.

24 "Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, Or in his disaster therefore ²¹cry out for help?

25 "Have I not ²²wept for the one whose life is hard? Was not my soul grieved for ²³the needy?

26 "When I ²⁴expected good, then evil came; When I waited for light, ²⁵then darkness came.

27 "I am seething ²⁶within and cannot relax; Days of affliction confront me.

28 "I go about ²⁷mourning without comfort; I stand up in the assembly and ²⁸cry out for help.

29 "I have become a brother to ²⁹jackals And a companion of ostriches *.

30 "My ³⁰skin turns black on me, And my ³¹bones burn with fever.

31 "Therefore my ³²harp is turned to mourning, And my flute to the sound of those who weep.

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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.

Taken from Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise)

Cross References 32

1. Job 12:4
2. Job 12:4
3. Job 17:6; Psalms 69:11; Lamentations 3:14, 63
4. Numbers 12:14; Deuteronomy 25:9; Job 17:6; Isaiah 50:6; Matthew 26:67
5. Ruth 1:21; Psalms 88:7
6. Psalms 32:9
7. Psalms 140:4, 5
8. Job 19:12
9. Isaiah 3:12
10. Job 3:25; Job 31:23; Psalms 55:3-5
11. Job 7:9; Hosea 13:3
12. 1 Samuel 1:15; Job 3:24; Psalms 22:14; Psalms 42:4; Isaiah 53:12
13. Job 30:30
14. Job 2:7
15. Psalms 69:2, 14
16. Job 19:7
17. Job 10:3; Job 16:9, 14; Job 19:6, 22
18. Job 9:17; Job 27:21
19. Job 9:22; Job 10:8
20. Job 3:19; Ecclesiastes 12:5
21. Job 19:7
22. Psalms 35:13, 14; Romans 12:15
23. Job 24:4
24. Job 3:25, 26; Jeremiah 8:15
25. Job 19:8
26. Lamentations 2:11
27. Job 30:31; Psalms 38:6; Psalms 42:9; Psalms 43:2
28. Job 19:7
29. Psalms 44:19; Micah 1:8
30. Job 2:7
31. Psalms 102:3
32. Isaiah 24:8

Footnotes 24

[a]. I.e. plant of the salt marshes
[b]. Or "wadis"
[c]. Or "bray"
[d]. Lit "Sons of fools"
[e]. Lit "sons"
[f]. Lit "song"
[g]. Lit "withhold spit from my face"
[h]. Or "they"
[i]. Some mss read "my"
[j]. Or "cord"
[k]. Possibly "sprout" or "offspring"
[l]. Lit "for"
[m]. Lit "Under"
[n]. Or "nobility"
[o]. Or "welfare"
[p]. Lit "upon"
[q]. Lit "from upon"
[r]. Lit "turned to be"
[s]. Lit "hard of day"
[t]. Lit "My inward parts are boiling"
[u]. Or "blackened, but not by the heat of the sun"
[v]. Lit "from upon"
[w]. Lit "heat"
[x]. Lit "becomes"

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.