Job 30
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CHAPTER 30
Job's Monologue Continued (30:1–31)
1–8 But now they mock me (verse 1). Those who had once honored Job now mocked him. His situation had become utterly reversed. Among the mockers were young men whose fathers were so unreliable he wouldn't have trusted his sheep with them! (verse 2). Then, in verses 3–8, Job gives a vivid description of these worthless fathers.61
9–15 In these verses, Job describes in figurative language how the sons of these worthless fathers mock him and attack him. Job pictures himself as a city under siege, and the enemy forces are the mockers. Notice, in verse 11, that these mockers can only attack Job because God has disarmed him—God has unstrung [his] bow (verse 11). Job feels that God is his ultimate enemy, and this becomes even clearer in verses 16–23.
16–19 Job now describes his present afflictions (verses 16–17). God has “bound up” Job in bodily sickness; God has been like clothing to Job, wrapping him in suffering (verse 18). God has reduced him to dust and ashes (verse 19)—symbols of humiliation and repentance (Job 42:6).
20–23 In these verses Job addresses God directly, complaining that God does not answer his cries (verse 20). “You turn on me ruthlessly,” Job says (verse 21). What a contrast to those former days when God was Job's friend!
24 -31 Job points out that no one harms—lays a hand on—a broken man, a man in distress; to do so would be a cruel injustice (verse 24). Job himself had helped such “broken” people in times past; but now, when he himself needs help, evil comes instead (verses 25–26). The injustice of this “churns” within him (verse 27). His body is blackened by disease and wastes away; he has become like a jackal or owl—separated from the company of men (verses 28–30). His life is characterized by mourning and wailing (verse 31). This is the situation he has been reduced to, since God became his enemy.