Limitless Word
I walk in gloom, without sunlight. I stand in the public square and cry for help.
Job 30:28 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
  • KJV I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.
  • BSB I go about blackened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
  • NKJV I go about mourning, but not in the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help.
  • NASB “I go about mourning without comfort; I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help.

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 walks about in mourning without comfort and cries for help in the assembly. It pictures his public grief and isolation.

Overview

Job describes himself going about blackened by grief, deprived of warmth and gladness, and standing up to cry for help among the people. His mourning is not hidden but visible to the community, yet still he finds no relief. His public lament prefigures the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief, who bore his suffering openly and through whom God draws near to all who mourn.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 6

  • Ps 42:9I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
  • Ps 43:2For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
  • Ps 38:6I am pained and bowed down greatly. I go mourning all day long.
  • Lam 3:1–3I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
  • Job 19:7“Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice.
  • Isa 53:3–4He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Job 30:28YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 30:28 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.