Job 30

Job 30:1-14

‘Job’s present deep admirably is here described, and leads the darker, contrasted with his former great prosperity. 1. He was now as much deplified, as before exalted, ver. 1—14. 2. His terror and furrow were in full measure with, or exceeded, his former consolation, ver. 15, 16, 20—28, & 31. 3. His health is changed into pain and sickness, ver. 17—19, 29, 30. 4. His former sweet communication with God is cut off, ver. 20—22. 5. Instead of his expected long life, death is at the door, ver. 23. But, 6. two things gave him some relief; (1.) That his troubles would not follow him to the grave, ver. 24. (2.) That in his prosperity he had sympathized with those that were in misery, ver. 25.

Chap. xix. 1. BUT now they that are younger than I, have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have let with the dogs of my flock. 2. Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished? 3. For want and famine they were solitary: fleeing into the wilderness, in former time desolate and waft: 4. Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper-roots for their meat. 5. They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them, as after a thief) 6. To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks. 7. Among the bushes: they brayed, under the nettles they were gathered together. 8. They were children of fools, yea, children of + bade men: they were viler than the earth. 9. And now am I their song, yea, I am their by-word. 10. They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to join in my face. 11. Because he hath loofed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me. 12. Upon my right hand let the youth, they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction. 13. They mar my path, they let forward my calamity, they have no helper. 14. They came upon me, as a wide breaking in of waters: in the defoliation they rolled themselves upon me.

We have here a long account of Job’s distress; among the chief of which, he reckons the insults he sustained from the vilest objects around him.

1. He describes them as younger than himself, persons of the meanest extraction, whose parents were so despicable, that they were unworthy to be set over the dogs of his flock; yea, scarce fit company for them, v. 1. So faithful, that they were useless cumbers of the ground: so battered with vices, that they never reached old age: or so foolish, that all the wisdom which usually attends long life was perished in them, v. 2. Poor as idle, famine came upon them; and whilst they refused to work, to fuch slowly beggars none cared to give; so that their distress drove them to the deserts, living upon roots, and fruits that grew wild upon the bushes, v. 3, 4. Vagabonds in the earth, and plagues of their country, for their crimes they were driven from the society of men, and every body was glad to be rid of them, v. 5. Under the rocks and in caves they hid themselves, like wild ashes; famished, they brayed for hunger; and under the nettles, or there hedges, were gathered together, v. 6, 7, a generation of folly and infamy, the very scum of the earth, v. 8. Note, (1.) They who will not work, have no right to eat. (2.) It is a relief to society, when the idle vagrants, the pells of society, are driven from the hive. (3.) This beggars would is full of the devil’s poor, whose vices and flesh concur to make

their being as miserable to themselves, as their sins render them obious to God and man.

2. Even these dares show their insolence and abuts to this afflicted man. They derided him, v. 1. made him the subject of their ballads, perhaps turned his name into a proverb for hypocrisy and wickedness, v. 9. They abhorred him for the vigilance with which, as a magistrate, he had animadvented upon them; shunned him as a plague, and if they came near, it was but to add the vilest insults to him, to join in his face, or stop up his heels, that they might sport themselves at his fall, v. 10, 12. Because God had afflicted him, and loofed his cord, his power as a magistrate to punish them, they call off all reverence and restrain, v. 11. The very children rose up to mock at his calamities, taught by their ungodly parents, v. 12. They imputed to him the cause of all their sufferings, and sought to revenge themselves upon him in his destruction. They obtructed him in the exercise of devotion, or treated his holy walk with contempt: they added bitterness to his affliction, and they have no helper, or no helper is against them, none to take my part, v. 13. Like the waters, when the mound is broken down, or a besieging army, when the breach is opened in the wall, they came rolling themselves, as if to overwhelm him in his present desolation, taking advantage of his weakness, and eager to make an utter end of him. Note, (1.) Insult in what grievous spirits can most dissuits by brook. (2.) The belt of men have suffered the most contempt and ridicule from an ungodly world; we may not think it strange therefore if we share with them. (3.) They who in their prosperity were almost adored, in adversity will often be trampled upon by every foot. (4.) Thus was the greater than Job treated in his distress, mocked, spot upon, pushed at in sport, and abhorred; yet never appeared greater in the eyes of God, than when most deplified and rejected of men.

3. Terrors are turned upon me: they purify my soul as the wind: and my welfare publish away as a cloud. 16. And now my soul is poured out upon me: the days of affliction have taken hold upon me. 17. My bones are pierced in me in the night-fashion: and my sinners take no rest. 18. By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat. 19. He hath call me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes. 20. I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardeth me not. 21. Thou art become cruel to me: with it thy throng hand thou opposeth thyself against me. 22. Thou lifteth me up to the wind: thou causeth me to ride upon it, and disloveleth my substance. 23. For I know that thou wilt bring me in death, and the house appointed for all living. 24. Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction. 25. Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? I was not my soul grieved for the poor? 26. When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. 27. My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me. 28. I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation. 29. I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to a owls. 30. My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burnt with heat. 31. My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.

Job 30:15-31

Many and grievous were the tribulations Job endured both in body and mind, of which he here feelingly complains.

Internal terrors fixed on his spirit, from the apprehension of God as an enemy; and as the wind, swell in furcation and restlessness, they pursued him. His welfare, or salvation, his prosperity passed away as the cloud vanishes, v. 16. Disfigured with anguish, his soul melted within him, and affliction had forced on him as its prey, v. 17. His body tortured with pains, his bones aching, and his sinners as if stretched upon the rock, prevented deep from closing his weary eyes, v. 18. The purulent discharge from his boils discoloured and stifled his very garments, so that they were not only noxious, but profiled hard and painfully on his inflamed ulcers, v. 18. Like one call in the mire, so banishome he appeared; and as more than half dead, his flesh seemed already turned to corruption, and hit only for the grave, v. 19. Wain were his prayers, his tears; God gave him no answer, as if dislopathy his request, v. 20. Yes, worse, God dealt with him as a cruel enemy; and, as if armed with omnipotence, opposed him on every side, v. 21. Caught up, as the stubble before the wind, he thought God poured with his misery, and by the blasts of his displeasure, dissipated all his faithness, v. 22. No prospect of relief appeared; but, wretched as he was, he expected to be brought to the grave, the house appointed for all the living, by Divine decree, since

sin entered, and death followed at its heels, v. 23. Yea, even the death he was appointed unto was delayed, and he was kept in torment; or God would not refuse him from going down to the pit, notwithstanding the prayers and intercessions of those who interested themselves for him, in his present rainous and miserable estate, v. 24. His compassions to the poor and afflicted had been tender and constant, v. 25. and he might hope to have met with like compassion from God; but how greatly was he disappointed, when, instead of the good he looked for, evil came upon him; and, instead of light and comfort in his troubles, darkness, and despair of their end, had compelled him about, v. 26. A burning fever touched him up within, and days of anguish rushed on him as an enemy, and торгized him as a thief in the night, v. 27. No gleam of him often lightened up the dark valley of affliction; even amidst the greatest concourse of those who assembled for worship, or gathered round him, he roared out in his pains, v. 28. Deidane and wailing, as the dragons and the owls, and finding none to pity him, v. 29. His skin was black with his disease, and it burnt to the very bones and marrow, v. 30. The voice of joy was fled, his harp and organ lay neglected by, unable now to relish the swelling ensue, when wropping and mourning were the melancholy discordant founds that ever grated in his ears, v. 31. Nate, (1.) They who dwell in corruptible bodies must repack often to lost sickness and pain, the preludes of death. (2.) It is folly as well as fin, to be proud of that body which the stroke of disease can make to handsome. (3.) Whatever houses men build for themselves, let them remember, there is one dwelling prepared for them, where they must make their length abode. (4.) Bodily trials are heavy, but a sense of God’s displeasure, and a wounded spirit, is the bitterest of all our burdens. (5.) Music is a pleading entertainment, but disease untunes the nerves, and loosens the silver cord, and then the sounds of harmony can delight no longer.