Job 30

1 "But now those younger than I hold me in derision, men whose fathers I wouldn't even have put with the dogs that guarded my sheep.

2 What use to me was the strength in their hands? All their vigor had left them.

3 Worn out by want and hunger, they gnaw the dry ground in the gloom of waste and desolation.

4 They pluck saltwort and bitter leaves; these, with broom tree roots, are their food.

5 They are driven away from society, with men shouting after them as after a thief,

6 to live in gullies and vadis, in holes in the ground and caves in the rocks.

7 Among the bushes they howl like beasts and huddle among the nettles,

8 irresponsible nobodies driven from the land.

9 "Now I have become their song; yes, I am a byword with them.

10 They loathe me, they stand aloof from me; they don't hesitate to spit in my face!

11 For God has loosened my bowstring and humbled me; they throw off restraint in my presence.

12 At my right the street urchins attack, pushing me from place to place, besieging me with their ways of destruction,

13 breaking up my path, furthering my calamity -even those who have no one to help them.

14 They move in as through a wide gap; amid the ruin they roll on in waves.

15 Terrors tumble over me, chasing my honor away like the wind; my [hope of] salvation passes like a cloud.

16 "So now my life is ebbing away, days of grief have seized me.

17 At night pain pierces me to the bone, so that I never rest.

18 My clothes are disfigured by the force [of my disease]; they choke me like the collar of my coat.

19 [God] has thrown me into the mud; I have become like dust and ashes.

20 "I call out to you [God], but you don't answer me; I stand up to plead, but you just look at me.

21 You have turned cruelly against me; with your powerful hand you keep persecuting me.

22 You snatch me up on the wind and make me ride it; you toss me about in the tempest.

23 For I know that you will bring me to death, the house assigned to everyone living.

24 "Surely [God] wouldn't strike at a ruin, if in one's calamity one cried out to him for help.

25 Didn't I weep for those who were in trouble? Didn't I grieve for the needy?

26 Yet when I hoped for good, what came was bad; when I expected light, what came was darkness.

27 My insides are in turmoil; they can't find rest; days of misery confront me.

28 I go about in sunless gloom, I rise in the assembly and cry for help.

29 I have become a brother to jackals and a companion of ostriches.

30 My skin is black and falling off me, and my bones are burning with heat.

31 So my lyre is tuned for mourning, my pipe to 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.

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.