Job 30

Chapters 29–31 of the Book of Job form Job's final defense, which he delivers alone after his debate with his friends has ended. In Job 29, Job recalled the days when he was held in honor. Chapter 30 opens with "But now" and sets his present misery directly against that former state.

Outline

• Verses 1–8 Men younger than Job deride him. Job had regarded their fathers as unworthy even to be set with the dogs that guarded his flock. These are people who, driven by hunger, ate saltwort and the roots of the broom tree, and who, driven out by others, lived in ravines and in holes in the rocks.
• Verses 9–15 Job has become their song and their byword. They spit in his face and rush upon him like attackers pouring into a breached city. Job says this is because God has loosed his cord. His honor and prosperity have passed away like the wind and like a cloud.
• Verses 16–23 Night after night his bones ache, and his pain gives him no rest. Job protests that God has cast him into the mire and made him like dust and ashes. He says that God, who does not answer when he cries out, will in the end bring him to death.
• Verses 24–31 Job recalls that he wept for those in trouble. Yet when he looked for good, evil came. His skin has turned black, his bones burn with heat, and he has become a brother of wolves and a companion of ostriches. His harp and pipe have turned to the sound of mourning.

Key Verses

• Job 30:20 "I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me": a verse that openly protests the silence of God and exposes the tension running through the entire Book of Job.
• Job 30:26 "When I looked for good, then evil came unto me": the verse captures the collapse of the expectation that doing good is rewarded with blessing.
• Job 30:19 "I am become like dust and ashes": the same expression reappears in Job's final confession (Job 42:6).

Characters and Places

• Job: the speaker of this chapter, who appeals directly to God.
• The young mockers: described as the children of people driven out of society; they are not named.
• The congregation (v. 28): a place where people gather, where Job says he cries out for help.

Points for Reflection

• How to view Job's harsh words: This chapter contains laments that come close to accusing God. Elihu, who speaks next, and God's speeches (beginning in chapter 38) rebuke Job's words. Yet in Job 42:7–10, God says that Job has spoken rightly, in contrast to his friends. Accordingly, some interpreters esteem these laments as honest prayer, while others regard them as speech that has its limits.
• An unresolved tension: In verse 25, Job says that he grieved for the poor. In verses 1–8, however, he shows contempt for those who had been driven out. Some readers point to the tension between these two passages.
• Differences in translation: The names of the animals in verse 29 are rendered differently in different translations, and some interpret them as wild animals such as jackals.
• Connection with the New Testament: Some Christian readers link the image of Job, spat upon and crying out amid God's silence, with the Passion of Jesus. Passages cited in this connection include Matthew 26:67 and Mark 15:33–37.