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Job 30

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Job's Contemptible Tormentors 1–8

1
But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, Whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. ​
2
Yea, the strength of their hands, whereto should it profit me? Men in whom ripe age is perished. ​
3
They are gaunt with want and famine; They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of wasteness and desolation. ​
4
They pluck salt-wort by the bushes; And the roots of the broom are their food. ​
5
They are driven forth from the midst of men; They cry after them as after a thief;
6
So that they dwell in frightful valleys, In holes of the earth and of the rocks.
7
Among the bushes they bray; Under the nettles they are gathered together.
8
They arechildren of fools, yea, children of base men; They were scourged out of the land. ​

Suffering Mockery and Abuse 9–14

9
And now I am become their song, Yea, I am a byword unto them. ​
10
They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, And spare not to spit in my face. ​
11
For he hath loosed his cord, and afflicted me; And they have cast off the bridle before me. ​
12
Upon my right hand rise the rabble; They thrust aside my feet, And they cast up against me their ways of destruction.
13
They mar my path, They set forward my calamity, Even men that have no helper.
14
As through a wide breach they come: In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves upon me. ​

Overwhelming Physical Affliction 15–19

15
Terrors are turned upon me; They chase mine honor as the wind; And my welfare is passed away as a cloud.
16
And now my soul is poured out within me; Days of affliction have taken hold upon me. ​
17
In the night season my bones are pierced in me, And thepainsthat gnaw me take no rest. ​
18
By God’sgreat force is my garment disfigured; It bindeth me about as the collar of my coat. ​
19
He hath cast me into the mire, And I am become like dust and ashes. ​

Complaint Against God’s Cruelty 20–24

20
I cry unto thee, and thou dost not answer me: I stand up, and thou gazest at me. ​
21
Thou art turned to be cruel to me; With the might of thy hand thou persecutest me. ​
22
Thou liftest me up to the wind, thou causest me to rideupon it; And thou dissolvest me in the storm. ​
23
For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, And to the house appointed for all living.
24
Howbeit doth not one stretch out the hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help? ​

Contrast of Past Compassion and Present Misery 25–31

25
Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? Was not my soul grieved for the needy? ​
26
When I looked for good, then evil came; And when I waited for light, there came darkness. ​
27
My heart is troubled, and resteth not; Days of affliction are come upon 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 is black, and fallethfrom me, And my bones are burned with heat. ​
31
Therefore is my harpturnedto mourning, And my pipe into the voice of them that weep. ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Job 30

Verse 1

have me in derision — Sachaq, to laugh, the verb Job used of himself in 29:24, 'If I laughed on them, they believed it not'. Now those 'younger' (tsa'ir, small in days) laugh at him. The dogs are those 'of my flock', the sheepdogs. The first line sets this chapter against the last: the one who was honoured at the gate is mocked.

Verse 2

old age was perished — 'Old age' is kelach, ripe vigour, a word found twice in the KJV, here and in Eliphaz's 'Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age' (5:26). The men Job describes never reached it. The 'strength of their hands' (koach) would have been of no use to him.

Verse 3

solitary — Galmud, barren, bereft. Job used it of the night of his own birth, 'let that night be solitary' (3:7), and Isaiah of Zion, 'I have lost my children, and am desolate' (Isa 49:21). 'Desolate and waste' is sho'ah, the word of v.14 and of 'the desolate and waste ground' in 38:27. 'Wilderness' is tsiyah, dry land.

Verse 4

mallows… juniper roots — Malluach is sea-purslane, a salt plant named only here in Scripture. Rothem is the broom plant, the 'juniper' under which Elijah sat and asked that he might die (1 Kings 19:4). They ate it as 'meat' (lechem, food, the word usually rendered bread).

Verse 8

children of fools — Nabal, the impious fool, the word that is also the name of the man whose wife said 'as his name is, so is he' (1 Sam 25:25). 'Base men' is literally men of no name (shem). 'Viler than the earth' is naka, to be struck, or driven out, so the sense is that they were beaten out of the land.

Verse 9

their song — Neginah, a song sung to strings, here a song of scorn, as in 'I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day' (Lam 3:14) and 'I was the song of the drunkards' (Ps 69:12). 'Byword' is millah, a word, the same as 'my speech' in 29:22. The man whose words dropped on them is now what they say.

Verse 10

spare not to spit in my face — Raq, spittle, found in Job at 7:19 and here, and in 'I hid not my face from shame and spitting' (Isa 50:6). 'Abhor' is ta'ab, to loathe, and 'spare not' is chasak, to hold back. The same insult is recorded at Christ's trial: 'Then did they spit in his face' (Matt 26:67).

Verse 11

let loose the bridle — 'Cord' is yether, a small rope, loosed so that what held Job is slack; 'afflicted' (anah) is to humble. The 'bridle' is resen, the halter of a horse, as in 'whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle' (Ps 32:9). The restraint on his tormentors is let go.

Verse 14

a wide breaking in of waters — Perets, a breach, as in David's 'The LORD hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters' (2 Sam 5:20). What David saw fall on his enemies Job feels fall on himself. 'Desolation' is sho'ah, as in v.3, and 'rolled' is galal, the verb of a stone rolled.

Verse 16

my soul is poured out — Shaphak, the verb of 'I am poured out like water' (Ps 22:14) and of Hannah, who 'poured out my soul before the LORD' (1 Sam 1:15). The 'soul' is nephesh, the whole life. 'Days of affliction' (oni) have 'taken hold' (achaz) of him.

Verse 17

my bones are pierced — Naqar, to bore or pick out. 'In the night season' recalls 7:3–4, 'wearisome nights are appointed to me… When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise'. 'Sinews' is araq, from a verb meaning to gnaw, the same Hebrew word the KJV renders 'fleeing' in v.3. The pain that gnaws does not lie down (shakab).

Verse 18

my garment changed — 'Garment' is lebush, and 'changed' is chaphas, to disguise: his clothing no longer looks as it did. The 'collar' is literally the 'mouth' (peh) of the 'coat' (kuttoneth), the neck-opening of the tunic, which clings about his throat.

Verse 19

dust and ashes — Aphar and epher, the pair Abraham used of himself before God, 'which am but dust and ashes' (Gen 18:27), and which Job uses at the end, 'I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes' (42:6). 'Mire' is chomer, clay, as in 10:9, 'thou hast made me as the clay'.

Verse 20

thou regardest me not — Bin, to discern, the verb of 28:23, 'God understandeth the way thereof'. The God who discerns wisdom's way is, in Job's words, not discerning him. 'I cry' is shava, a call for help, and 'hear' is anah, to answer. He had said before, 'I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard' (19:7).

Verse 21

thou art become cruel — Akzar, fierce, found in four verses of the KJV (Deut 32:33, 'the cruel venom of asps'; here; Job 41:10; Lam 4:3). 'Opposest thyself' is satam, to bear a grudge, used also at 16:9, 'who hateth me'. The 'strong' hand is otsem, might.

Verse 22

liftest me up to the wind — Ruach, wind, also breath and spirit. Job pictures God lifting him up to the wind and making him ride it. 'Dissolvest' is mug, to melt, the verb of 'The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved' (Ps 75:3). When the LORD does answer, it is 'out of the whirlwind' (38:1).

Verse 24

he will not stretch out his hand — A hard verse. 'Grave' is be'i, a word found only here, and 'destruction' is pid, calamity, the word of 31:29, 'the destruction of him that hated me'. The KJV reads that God 'will not stretch out his hand to the grave': his hand does not follow a man into it, though they cry out in his calamity.

Verse 25

Did not I weep — 'In trouble' is literally 'hard of day' (qasheh yom). 'Grieved' is agam, to be sad, a word found only here, and 'poor' is evyon, needy. The weeping Job gave the poor is what Paul later commands: 'weep with them that weep' (Rom 12:15).

Verse 26

When I looked for good — 'Looked for' is qavah, to wait with expectation, and 'waited' is yachal, the verb of 29:21 and 29:23, where others waited for him. Jeremiah puts it the same way: 'We looked for peace, but no good came' (Jer 8:15). 'Darkness' is ophel, gloom, the word of 'stones of darkness' in 28:3.

Verse 28

mourning without the sun — Qadar, to be dark, the verb of 'I go mourning all the day long' (Ps 38:6) and 'why go I mourning' (Ps 42:9). 'Without the sun' is chammah, the sun's heat. Job 'cried in the congregation' (qahal, the assembly), among those before whom he had once 'sat chief' (29:25).

Verse 29

a brother to dragons — Tannim, desert creatures, with bath ya'anah, 'daughter of the ostrich', here 'owls'. The two stand together in 'I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls' (Mic 1:8) and in Isaiah's 'habitation of dragons, and a court for owls' (Isa 34:13).

Verse 30

my skin is black — Shachar, to be dark, found only here in the KJV. 'Burned' is charar, to be scorched, as in 'my bones are burned as an hearth' (Ps 102:3). It follows the boils that Satan sent 'from the sole of his foot unto his crown' (2:7).

Verse 31

my harp… my organ — Kinnor and ugab, the instruments of Jubal, 'the father of all such as handle the harp and organ' (Gen 4:21). Job had said of the wicked, 'They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ' (21:12). His own are turned to 'mourning' (evel) and to the voice of those who weep.