Bible Commentaries
Job 30

Verses 1-31

CHAPTER 30

1. His present humiliation and shame (Job 30:1-19 )

2. No answer from God: completely forsaken (Job 30:20-31 )

Job 30:1-19 . He had spoken of his past greatness and now he describes his present misery. Ah! the bitterness if it--those younger than I have me in derision! Alas! through it all we hear nothing but pride. He scorns those who were so much beneath him. And those who were scourged out of the land, these children of fools and base men, mock him, the former prince among men. “I am become their song; I am a byword to them; they abhor me; they spit in my face.” Then he describes his affliction. “Days of affliction have taken hold upon me--the pains that gnaw me take no rest.” He is in the mire and has become like dust and ashes.

Job 30:20-31 . He brings in God again. Thou dost not answer me! Heaven had been silent to all his pleas. What a dreadful charge: “Thou art turned to be cruel to me; with the might of Thy hand Thou persecutest me”! He thinks himself completely forsaken, not knowing that God’s thoughts towards him were thoughts of love and peace. His skin is black, he says, his bones are burned with heat. No joy for him, nothing but weeping.