Job · chapter 30 of 42
Updated on
In Job 30 Job describes the painful contrast with his past: men younger than he mock him, men whose fathers he would not have put with the dogs of his flock. He suffers illness, sleeplessness and scorn, and above all feels that God, to whom he cries, does not answer him and has turned cruel. His harp is turned to mourning and his pipe to the voice of those who weep.
After recalling his days of honor in chapter 29, Job returns to the present with the words 'but now.' Job 30 is the second chapter of his final defense and one of the rawest descriptions of suffering in the Bible: loss of honor, of health and of the sense of God's nearness.
Job begins with the contrast: now men younger than he laugh at him, sons of people he would not have put with the dogs of his flock. They were outcasts, hungry, living in desolate places, eating salt herbs and the roots of broom, driven out from among men and shouted at like thieves. And now Job is their song and their byword; they abhor him, keep far from him and do not hold back from spitting in his face (vv. 1-10).
Job attributes his situation to God, who has loosened his cord and humbled him. Men without restraint rise against him, block his path and come at him like a breach in a wall. Terrors turn on him; his honor is carried off like the wind and his prosperity passes like a cloud. His soul is poured out within him; night pierces his bones and the pain never rests. God has cast him into the mud, and he has become like dust and ashes (vv. 11-19).
Job cries to God, but receives no answer. He feels God has turned cruel, lifting him on the wind and tossing him about in the storm. He knows God will bring him to death. He asks whether anyone lays a hand against the ruined who cry out in their calamity. He too wept for the one whose day was hard and grieved for the poor. He hoped for good and evil came; he waited for light and darkness came. His inward parts boil, his skin turns black, and his harp and pipe sound only mourning (vv. 20-31).
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The chapter opens with the contrast: now men younger than Job laugh at him, men whose fathers he would not have put with the dogs of his flock. The humiliation is not only physical but social: he goes from respected counselor to object of scorn.
Job says he has become the song and byword of these men, who abhor him, keep far from him and do not hold back from spitting at him. The man once heard at the city gate is now avoided and despised.
Job cries to God and gets no answer; he stands, and God only looks at him. He feels God has turned cruel to him. It is a direct complaint to God, and the Bible records it without rebuking Job.
Job hoped for good and evil came; he waited for light and darkness came. It sums up his experience: he lived justly and trusted that God would watch over him, and his suffering seems to contradict that hope.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Men younger than he, whose fathers Job would not have put with the dogs of his flock. — Job 30:1
Answer: Their song and their byword; they abhor him and keep far from him. — Job 30:9-10
Answer: The night pierces his bones and the pain never lets him rest. — Job 30:17
Answer: He has cast him into the mud, and he has become like dust and ashes. — Job 30:19
Answer: God does not answer; he only looks at him and has turned cruel to him. — Job 30:20-21
Answer: With Job saying his harp is turned to mourning and his pipe to the voice of those who weep. — Job 30:31
Job 30 teaches us not to rush those who suffer. Job goes from respected to spat upon, from feeling accompanied by God to feeling ignored. A small group can use this chapter to walk with someone going through a fall, without offering easy solutions, and to remember that crying out to God honestly is a form of faith.
It also warns about how we treat those who are down. The men who mock Job show that human honor is fragile and that yesterday's despised can be today's mockers. From Christ, who was despised and spat upon, the Christian learns that God is with those who suffer.
Job 30 is the lowest point of his lament: without honor, without health and without an answer. In chapter 31 Job will make one last act of defense: an oath of innocence that reviews his life and challenges God to answer him.
It is the expression of his pain, not a doctrine. Job does not know his suffering comes from Satan's challenge in the prologue, so he interprets what he lives as hostility from God. The book lets the complaint be heard and later shows that God is not cruel but sovereign and wise.
It refers to the skin disease Job has suffered since chapter 2 (Job 2:7), which blackens, peels and burns with fever. The text does not identify the exact illness.
It is a poetic image of loneliness and desolation. Jackals and ostriches lived in desolate places and their cries were mournful, so Job compares himself to them to say his lament is like that of abandoned animals.