Job 30

Job’s Honor Turned to Contempt

1 “But now they mock me, men younger than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to put with my sheep dogs.

2 What use to me was the strength of their hands, since their vigor had left them?

3 Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night.

4 They plucked mallow among the shrubs, and the roots of the broom tree were their food. ^[a]

5 They were banished from among men, shouted at like thieves,

6 so that they lived on the slopes of the wadis, among the rocks and in holes in the ground.

7 They cried out among the shrubs and huddled beneath the nettles.

8 A senseless and nameless brood, they were driven off the land.

9 And now they mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.

10 They abhor me and keep far from me; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

11 Because God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they have cast off restraint ^[b] in my presence.

12 The rabble arises at my right; they lay snares for my feet and build siege ramps against me.

13 They tear up my path; they profit from my destruction, with no one to restrain them. ^[c]

14 They advance as through a wide breach; through the ruins they keep rolling in.

Job’s Prosperity Becomes Calamity

15 Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.

16 And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction grip me.

17 Night pierces my bones, and my gnawing pains never rest.

18 With great force He grasps my garment; ^[d] He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.

19 He throws me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.

20 I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer; when I stand up, You merely look at me.

21 You have ruthlessly turned on me; You oppose me with Your strong hand.

22 You snatch me up into the wind and drive me before it; You toss me about ^[e] in the storm.

23 Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.

24 Yet no one stretches out his hand against a ruined man when he cries for help in his distress.

25 Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has my soul not grieved for the needy?

26 But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.

27 I am churning within and cannot rest; days of affliction confront me.

28 I go about blackened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

29 I have become a brother of jackals, ^[f] a companion of ostriches. ^[g]

30 My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.

31 My harp is tuned to mourning and my flute to the sound of weeping.

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]. Or their fuel
• [b]. Hebrew the bridle
• [c]. Or with no one to assist them
• [d]. LXX; Hebrew He becomes like a garment to me or my garment is disfigured
• [e]. Or You dissolve me
• [f]. Or serpents or dragons
• [g]. Literally of daughters of an ostrich or of daughters of an owl

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.