“Surely He would not stretch out His hand against a heap of ruins, If they cry out when He destroys it.
Parallel translations
- WEB “However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
- KJV Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.
- BSB Yet no one stretches out his hand to a ruined man when he cries for help in his distress.
- NASB ¶“Yet does one in a heap of ruins not reach out with his hand, Or in his disaster does he not cry out for help?
- NLT “Surely no one would turn against the needy when they cry for help in their trouble.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job appeals to common humanity: a person in ruin naturally reaches out and cries for help. He pleads that his own cries deserve compassion, not abandonment.
Overview
The verse is difficult to translate, but Job seems to argue that even a falling man stretches out his hand for help, so his own cries for relief should not be despised. He appeals to the instinct of mercy that ought to meet a person in calamity. His longing for compassion he does not receive points to the perfect compassion of Christ, who never turns away the one who cries to him in distress.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Judg 5:31“So let all your enemies perish, Yahweh, but let those who love him be as the sun when it rises in its strength.” Then the land had rest forty years.
- Job 19:7“Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice.
- Ps 35:25Don’t let them say in their heart, “Aha! That’s the way we want it!” Don’t let them say, “We have swallowed him up!”
- Matt 27:39–44Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads,
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 30:24 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.