Job 30

“But now those who are younger than I mock at me, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.

2 Yes, what could the strength of their hands profit me, since their vigor was gone?

3 They were emaciated from want and hunger, having lately fled to the desolate and waste wilderness.

4 They plucked salt marsh plants beside the bushes, and their food was the root of the broom tree.

5 They were driven out from among the people (who cried out after them as after a thief),

6 To live among the cliffs of the ravines, in the caves and rocks of the land.

7 They brayed among the bushes, and gathered together under the nettles.

8 These are the sons of fools, yes, children of base men who were scourged from the land.

9 “And now I am their mocking song; yes, I am their byword.

10 They abhor me. They keep their distance from me, and do not hold back from spitting in my face.

11 Because he has loosened my bowstring and afflicted me, they have also cast off restraint in my presence.

12 At my right hand the youth rise up; they push my feet away, and raise against me their destructive ways.

13 They break up my road; without any helper, they set up calamity for me.

14 They come on me like a wide break in the wall; in their ruins they come rolling in.

30:1-14 Instead of the honor and respect Job once experienced he faces the scorn and opposition of base and useless men. Their fathers had been regarded by the people of that region as unfit to live there and had been driven out (vs 5,8). Now these young men spit in Job’s face and try to cause him all the trouble they can (Job 16:10-11).⚜

15 Terrors are turned on me; they pursue my soul like the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.

16 And now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have seized me.

17 At night my bones in me are pierced, and my gnawing pains have no rest.

18 Because of their great power my clothing is changed; they bind me all around like the collar of my coat.

19 He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes.

20 I cry out to you, O God, but you do not hear me. I stand up, but you just watch me.

21 You have become cruel to me. With your strong hand you oppose me.

22 You lift me up to the wind and make me ride on it, dissolving my substance.

30:20-22 Once more Job turns to God with his complaint (Job 7:7-21; 10:2-22; 13:20—14:20; 16:7-8; 17:3-4).⚜

23 For I know that you will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all the living.

24 “But he will not stretch out his hand toward the grave, though they cry out at its destruction.

30:24 Even if he does not fear this falling toward death (and he did not – Job 6:8-9; 7:15), still he will cry out for help.⚜

25 Did I not weep for anyone in trouble? Was my soul not grieved for the poor?

26 When I looked for good, then disaster came; and when I waited for light, darkness came.

30:25-26 This is his complaint all along – he has not been rewarded according to his deeds, but God has dealt with him unjustly. He thinks God has not treated him as well as he – Job – has treated others.⚜

27 The agitation inside me never stops. Days of affliction confront me.

28 I go about mourning, without the light of the sun. I stand up and cry out in the congregation.

29 I am a brother to jackals, and a companion of owls.

30:29 This may refer to the piercing, mournful sounds these animals make, and perhaps to their solitariness.⚜

30 My skin on me is black, and my bones burn with heat.

31 And my harp is tuned to mourning, and my flute to the sound of those who weep.

30:31 Job compares his final lament to the mournful tones made by musical instruments, rising, falling, and dying away.⚜