Job 30 Study Notes

30:16-19 Job’s life had disintegrated into days and nights of unbearable suffering. It was as though God had bound him in a straitjacket and thrown him on the ground.

30:20-23 These verses form a prayer. Job accuses God of cruelty; God beats him with a storm, then leads him to death, “the meeting-house for all mankind.”

30:24 Job questioned the Lord’s conduct. God’s attack seemed like “kicking a man when he is down.”

30:25-26 Weeping for sufferers and grieving for the needy is expected to result in good and light. But he has only received evil and darkness.

30:27-30 Job’s suffering was total—physical, spiritual, and emotional. His churning insides and fever may have been a side-effect of the disease that blackened his skin. Abandoned by God and his fellow man, he compared his unheeded cries for help to the jackal’s woeful howl and the mournful sound of the ostrich (Mc 1:8).

30:31 In bold figures Job portrayed his cries as the sounds of musical instruments. Rather than tunes of joy (21:12; Ps 33:2), praise (Ps 150:4), or comfort (1Sm 16:23), Job’s lyre produced only dirge-like tones. His flute provided no happy melody (21:12; Mt 11:17), only a mourning sound (Mt 9:23).