Job Chapter 30
1 "But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I considered unworthy to put with my sheep dogs.
2 Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished?
3 They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.
4 They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom tree are their food.
5 They are driven out from amongst men. They cry after them as after a thief;
6 So that they dwell in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
7 They bray amongst the bushes. They are gathered together under the nettles .
8 They are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men. They were flogged out of the land.
9 "Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.
10 They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don't hesitate to spit in my face.
11 For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have thrown off restraint before me.
12 On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, They cast up against me their ways of destruction.
13 They mar my path. They promote my destruction without anyone's help.
14 As through a wide breach they come. They roll themselves in amid the ruin.
15 Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honour as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud.
16 "Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold of me.
17 In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.
18 My garment is disfigured by great force. It binds me about as the collar of my tunic.
19 He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.
20 I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me.
21 You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me.
22 You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm.
23 For I know that you will bring me to death, To the house appointed for all living.
24 "However doesn't one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
25 Didn't I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn't my soul grieved for the needy?
26 When I looked for good, then evil came. When I waited for light, darkness came.
27 My heart is troubled, and doesn't rest. Days of affliction have come on me.
28 I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
29 I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.
30 My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burnt with heat.
31 Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.
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Job Chapter 30 Guide
Immediately Job passed to the description of his present condition, which is all the more startling as it stands in contrast with what he had said concerning the past. He first described the base who now held him in contempt. In the old days the highest reverenced him. Now the very lowest and basest held him in derision,
Now I am become their song.
They chase mine honour as the wind.
But yesterday the word of Caesar might
Have stood against the world; now lies he there,
And none so poor to do him reverence.
So Shakespeare makes Mark Antony speak over the dead body of Caesar. In the case of Job the experience was more bitter, for not only did the poor refuse to reverence him, the base despised him, and he had not found refuge in the silence of death.
In the midst of this reviling of the crowd, his actual physical pain is graphically described, and the supreme sorrow of all was that when he cried to God there was no answer, but continuity of diction. He claimed that his sufferings were justification for his complaint. All this precedes the oath of innocence. Before passing to that, it may be well briefly to review the process of these final addresses. Job first protested his innocence (27:1-6). Then he poured out his wrath on his enemies (27:7-23). Following this, he declared man's inability to find wisdom (28). Finally, he contrasted his past (29) with his present (30).
From "An Exposition of the Whole Bible" by G. Campbell Morgan.
Job Chapter 30 Commentary
Chapter Outline
- 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.
From the "Concise Commentary on the Bible" by Matthew Henry.