Job 30

TODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION

1 But men younger than I am make fun of me now I

Their fathers have always been so worthless

I wouldn-’t let them help my dogs guard sheep.

2 They were a bunch of worn-out men,

too weak to do any work for me.

3 They were so poor and hungry

they would gnaw dry roots at night, in wild, desolate places.

4 They pulled up and ate the plants of the desert,

even the tasteless roots of the broom tree!

5 Everyone drove them away with shouts,

the way you shout at a thief.

6 They had to live in caves,

in holes dug in the sides of cliffs.

7 Out in the wilds they howled like animals,

and huddled together under the bushes.

8 A worthless bunch of nameless nobodies!

They were driven out of the land.

9 Now they come and laugh at me;

I am nothing but a joke to them.

10 They treat me with disgust;

they think they are too good for me, and even come and spit in my face.

11 Because God has made me weak and helpless,

they turn against me with all their fury.

12 This mob attacks me head-on;

they send me running; they prepare their final assault.

13 They cut off my escape and try to destroy me;

and there is no one to stop them.

14 They pour through the holes in my defenses,

and come crashing down on top of me;

15 I am overcome with terror.

My dignity is gone like a puff of wind,

and my prosperity like a cloud.

16 Now I am about to die;

there is no relief for my suffering.

17 At night my bones all ache;

the pain that gnaws me never stops.

18 God grabs me by my collar

and twists my clothes out of shape.

19 He throws me down in the mud;

I am no better than dirt.

20 I call to you, God, but you never answer;

and when I pray, you pay no attention.

21 You are treating me cruelly;

you persecute me with all your power.

22 You let the wind blow me away;

you toss me about in a raging storm.

23 I know you are taking me off to my death,

to the fate in store for everyone.

24 Why do you attack a ruined man

who can do nothing but beg for pity?

25 Didn-’t I weep with people in trouble

and feel sorry for those in need?

26 I hoped for happiness and light,

but trouble and darkness came instead.

27 I am torn apart by worry and pain;

there is nothing but suffering ahead.

28 I walk in gloom and there is no comfort;

I stand up in public and plead for help.

29 My voice is as sad and lonely

as the cries of a jackal or an ostrich.

30 My skin has turned dark; I am burning with fever. 31 Where once I heard joyful music,

there is now only mourning and weeping.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 30:1-31

There is a great contrast throughout this chapter. What is it?

Who are these strange ungrateful men of Job 30:1-8?

What caused these men to show change in their attitude toward Job?

What is said of weak old men in verse two?

In what sense could these men be called desert rats?

The diet of these men indicates almost starvation. Why all this emphasis?

Are there many men today who live in such a miserable manner? Would they mock? Discuss.

The places of living of these miserable men and Job are somewhat alike. How?

These men are like braying horses. Explain.

Sons of no nameWhat gave them this position?

The point of verses one through eight is given in verse nine. What is it?

The height of insult is reached in verse ten. What is it?

What is meant by the reference to cord in Job 30:11?

What is the image created in Job 30:12?

Job is a besieged city under attack. How graphic is the description! Point out examples.

Job is blown away. Explain Job 30:15.

Job’s suffering has given him a very despondent view of life. Why?

At night pain somehow seems much worse. Is this the thought of Job 30:17? There is more. Discuss.

Explain in your own words the meaning of Job 30:18.

God looks on and sees all but says nothing. Is that the thought of Job 30:20?

In what sense does Job see God as cruel to him?

Express in your own words the meaning of Job 30:22.

Is the grave the end as suggested in Job 30:23?

Job says God is not keeping the golden rule. Is this the thought of Job 30:24. Discuss.

Job was grieved for the needy. He wept for those in trouble. What is implied by saying this as in Job 30:25?

Virtue does not always produce happiness. Why?

Job is more than worried. Explain Job 30:27.

There is difficulty in translating the first phrase of Job 30:28. What is meant?

How is Job like a jackal or ostrich?

The disease affects the skin. How? Discuss.

Job used to play harp and a pipe. For what purpose. To whom?

Job 30:1-15

2. Sorrowful description of his present sad estate (Job 30:1-31)

a. The contempt he has from men of lowest class (Job 30:1-15)

TEXT 30:1-15

**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 are children of fools, yea, children of base men;

They were scourged out of the land.

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.

15 Terrors are turned upon me;

They chase mine honor as the wind; And my welfare is passed away as a cloud.**

COMMENT 30:1-15

**Job 30:1**Job’s irretrievable prestigious past is abruptly contrasted with the present chaos derived from the calamities he is presently enduring. Sharp abruptness is conveyed by the repetition of But nowJob 30:1; Job 30:9; Job 30:16 (-ksurely in Job 30:24). The prince who has shared his abundance to meet their needs, his compassion to heal their suffering, is now despised; he is beneath them. These miserable outcasts now despised their former benefactor. Their arrogant ingratitude is now one of Job’s great burdens. Job pours out his soul in this poem, which contains four divisions: (1) Irreverence of impious menJob 30:1-8; (2) Resentment of societyJob 30:9-15; (3) God’s indifferenceJob 30:16-23; and (4) Misery born of destitutionJob 30:24-31.

The young had formerly treated Job with marked respectJob 29:8; now they make sport of him. The verb translated as have me in derision is the same as in Job 29:24, but the preposition is different. In Job 29:24 he describes their gracious smile; here their vulgar mockery. The cultural decorum called for the respect of all eldersJob 15:10. But those who watched over his former flocks with their guard dogs publicly expressed disrespectIsa 56:10 ff; 1 Samuel 17:43; and Psalms 68:23. The dogs were scavengers and so were those who watched my flocks. Now they think they are better than **I **am.

**Job 30:2**Perhaps this verse describes the fathers of the youth in verse one. The fathers are weaklings (kalah here, kelah in Job 5:26, where -firm strength-’ is conjectured) unfit and unable to do hard work. These men, who are not profitable to anyone, even they despise me.

**Job 30:3**Through hunger these men are stiff and lifeless. The word gaunt as in A. V. is from a word meaning hard or stony and is rendered barren in Job 3:7. They are so destitute that they gnaw (-rqoccurs only here and in Job 30:17) the roots of the dry ground. The emphasis here is not so much hunger as destitution of diet, diet limited to desert roots. The last line alliterative and literally reads yesterday desolate and waste, clearly suggesting the ruin and utter desolation of their habitat. Even these desert rats hate me.

**Job 30:4**Their diet is so poor that they eat saltwort. This is a saline plant with sour leaves, which grows in salt marshes. This is miserable food eaten in miserable circumstances. The broom roots yield charcoalPsa 120:4; Isaiah 47:14; but they are not edible. Only the destitute would eat this type of plant.

**Job 30:5**Dahood suggests that the obscure phrasemin gew[303]should be translated with a shout they are driven forth, i.e., driven away when they approached inhabited places. These are not like the people of Job 24:5 ff who are forced to steal to have subsistence level of food; but they are social outcasts who are chased away from any community.

[303] M. Dahood, Biblica, 1957, pp. 318ff.

**Job 30:6**Since they are not welcome in any community, they live in the dreadful ravines among the rocks. Job bitterly relates how even these people taunt him, now that he is also an outcast living on a dunghill.

**Job 30:7**The root -nhq is used only twice in Job and means bray. It can mean bray suggesting lust, like a stallion in Jeremiah 5:8; but surely here its meaning is the hoarse cries of hunger. The miserable rabble huddle together under the plant (harul) rendered nettle in A. V. They huddle for warmth, not sexual perversion, as Peake suggests. But the meaning is uncertain, though it is related to certain leguminous plantsPro 24:31.

**Job 30:8**These outcasts are sons of no name. They have no respectable standing in any community; they are nobodys.[304] These unwelcomed were thrown out of the land (Heb. nakarendered scourged in A. V. should be thrust out or thrown out).

[304] W. M. W. Roth, Vetus Testamentum, 1960, pp. 402ff, suggests outcasts for sons of a senseless person.

**Job 30:9**This verse ties the threads together from verse one forward. These nobodys sing taunting songs which make Job the butt of their mockeryPsa 69:12; and especially Lamentations 3:14.

**Job 30:10**Yesterday kings and princes revered Job. Now the most contemptuous men despise him. His description of this ilk has been rather elaborateJob 30:3-8; and Psalms 59; Psalms 64; Psalms 73. This conglomeration of socially wretched even spit on the ground in front of methe height of insult!

**Job 30:11**The metaphors are obscure. Line one is in the singular he has loosed (following the Kethib reading his cord rather than the Qere reading my cord); the second line is in the plural, they have cast off. It is unclear what cord is intended, but the removal of the restraint (A. V.bridle) is an insolent act intended to humiliate Job.

**Job 30:12**All of the images suggest an assault context. On my right hand could suggest a court of law, where the accuser stood at the right hand; but the context is that of a siege or assault. The word rendered rabble as in A. V. could mean chicks as in Deuteronomy 22:6 and Psalms 83:3, and thus young ones with a deprecatory implication, that is insolent pups. The verb rendered cast off-’ in Job 30:11 appears here and means to drive out, or forth; thus the line implies that they have driven Job down roads of ruin or destruction (lit. they have cast off my feet).

**Job 30:13**The verb (ntsrendered as A. V. -mar) means to break up or pull down. Job continues with the destruction imagery. The outcasts make Job’s path impossible. These diabolical persons actively promote (A. V. set forward) his troubles. Those who aggressively attack him have no restraint (A. V. helper). G. R. Driver[305] has shown that the word has polarized meanings of help or hinder; this context calls for hinder.

[305] G. R. Driver, American Journal of Semitic Literature, 1935-6; p. 163; see also Blommerde, who tenders the line as there is none to help me against them.

**Job 30:14**The imagery of a besieged city under attack is also maintained in this verse. Here the wall is breached and wave after wave of soldiers pour through the wall like a tempest (soahProverbs 1:27; Ezekiel 38:9). In the midst of the ruin expresses the fact of falling stones from the breached wall (Heb. under the crash). The hordes of soldiers roll through (the verb means rollAmo 5:24) the wall like billows or waves. As if inexhaustible, Job’s enemies roll over him as a storm-tossed sea.

**Job 30:15**Terrors are overthrown on top of me. The picture is strikingly violent. Job’s princely dignity, once so widely acknowledged, is now blowing in the windJob 21:18 and Psalms 1:4. His well-being (Heb. yesu-‘ah[306]prosperity, often rendered salvation) passes swiftly away.

[306] Material and physical welfare is the dimension of the biblical doctrine of salvation often missed and is presently being strongly emphasized by Neo-Marxist Roman Catholics, especially in Latin America. See my Seminar SyllabusSin and Salvation.

Job 30:16-23

b. His unhappy misery (Job 30:16-23)

TEXT 30:16-23

**16 And now my soul is poured oat within me;

Days of affliction have taken hold upon me.

17 In the night season my bones are pierced in me,

And the **pains **that gnaw me take no rest.

18 By **God’S **great 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.

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 of to the wind,

thou causest me to ride upon it;

And thou disolvest me in the storm.

23 For I know that thou wilt bring me to death,

And to the house appointed for all living.**

COMMENT 30:16-23

**Job 30:16**For the third time Job emphasizes the contrast between his past and present existenceand nowJob 30:1; Job 30:9; Job 30:16; Psalms 42:4. Now he experiences only days of afflictionJob 30:27 and Lamentations 1:7. His soul (nephesh) can absorb no more emotional strain. His suffering has drained him of all zest for life1 Samuel 1:15; Psalms 42:5; and Lamentations 2:19.

**Job 30:17**The subject of this verse could be either the night personified or He, i.e., God. The night pierces, or God pierces. The A. V. takes my bones as subject and renders the verb are pierced. The night is the time when his suffering is most severeJob 7:3; Job 7:13 ff. My gnawers (lit. Heb.) do not lie down, i.e., sleep.

**Job 30:18**If God is taken as the subject as in A. V., then God seizes his garment and distorts or disfigures it. The line suggests a tightly fitting collar that binds, but this is problematic in that eastern garments were loose and free flowing. Without extensive emendation, little sense can be made from the text. In spite of this fact, Job is declaring that his diseased body is very uncomfortable.

**Job 30:19**It is better to supply the unexpressed subject as God (Heb. has he, or it has cast), as there is no indication that the subject of this verse is any different from Job 30:18. It is probable that in both verses Job is reaffirming that God causes his pain and suffering. Perhaps dust and ashes are to be understood as symbolizing Job’s humiliation.

**Job 30:20**Job cries to God for respite but God will not break His silence. The verb does not imply that God stared at as the A. V. rendering gazed might implyJob 19:7.

**Job 30:21**The verb rendered turned appears in Job 13:24; Job 19:11; and Isaiah 63:10. The image suggests one falling into enemy hands and being gradually and progressively infected with new and more intense pain.

**Job 30:22**This difficult verse has caused editors to provide many unconvincing emendations, but the basic sense is clear enough. The image shifts to that of a violent windstorm. He is tossed about and can neither control nor resist the wind. God rides the storm, but for Job it represents terror and destruction.

**Job 30:23**Though the Hebrew has bring me back in the sense of return, the context leaves little doubt that it should read bring him to death and leave him there. The grave is the house appointed for all the living.

Job 30:24-31

c. The disappointment of all his hopes (Job 30:24-31)

TEXT 30:24-31

**24 Howbeit doth not one stretch out the hand in his fall:

Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?

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 falleth **from me,

And my bones are burned with heat.

31 Therefore is my harp **turned **to mourning,

And my pipe into the voice of them that weep.

Job 30:24**The idiom, slh yd bsend the hand against (A. V. as stretch out the hand)is to be taken in the hostile sense. In his prosperity Job did not strike the unfortunate; why is he now receiving God’s hostile hand? Job declares that I always extended sympathy to anyone in distress, but me, I receive my calamities.

**Job 30:25**Job continuesDid I not weep for those who experiencedlit. the hard of day or the ones grieved. Now no one grieves for me. Will not even God show sympathy to Job?Romans 12:15 and 1 Peter 3:8. His friends showed no sympathy to himJob 19:21but he showed concern for others who sufferedJob 29:12-17. What about God?

**Job 30:26**He disputes the views of his friends that virtue produces happiness. His prosperity did not continue as a result of his generous sympathy, as they had claimed it would. **Job 30:27**His heart (lit. bowels, seat of emotionsJer 4:19 and Isaiah 16:11) boils (A. V. troubled is not strong enough) within himLam 1:20; Lamentations 2:11; and Ezekiel 24:5. His anxiety rages, yet no respite. God, please break your silence.

**Job 30:28**The A. V. rendering is defective. In the first line, without the sun is derived from the root qdrwhich has the primary sense of be or become dark. Job’s blackened appearance is not caused by the sun (Heb. hammahmeans sun, also heat as in Psalms 19:7), but rather his disease. The phrase found in the A. V., I go mourning without the sun, makes little sense. The same root, i.e., qdr, generates the meaning of sad or mourning, but this is probably the less preferred understanding for this context. The sense is that he is blackened without the sun. He says that I stand in the assembly and cry for help, but no one hears.

**Job 30:29**Jackals live in the desert, and the only place that Job is welcome is there. The jackals are also known for their plaintive cry, with which he also identifies. The ostrich, too, is known for its hissing, cackling, and doleful moaningMic 1:8; Isaiah 13:21; Isaiah 34:13. The mournful howl of these animals still disturbs the desert nights.

**Job 30:30**The disease is ravaging Job as his skin peels off (me-‘aloy, from upon me) his bones. His skin is black (this verse contains a different root than found in Job 30:28) from the final stages of the disease. Fever penetrates (burns) deeply in his bones. This same verb burn is found in Ezekiel 24:10 where it is used of the burning of bones with fire. Here it is used metaphorically, so also Psalms 102:4 and Isaiah 24:6.

**Job 30:31**The harp (kinnor) is often used for a joyful religious celebration. Here the celebration has turned to mourning. The glad, happy sounds are no more. The flute (-ugab) also expresses the spirit of lamentation. Here is a beautiful but pathetic contrast between Job’s past happy experiences and his present sickness unto death. From the perspective of his own angst we turn to hear Job’s final oaththe oath of innocence.