My harp is tuned to mourning and my flute to the sound of weeping.
Parallel translations
- WEB Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.
- KJV My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.
- NKJV My harp is turned to mourning, And my flute to the voice of those who weep.
- NASB “Therefore my harp is turned to mourning, And my flute to the sound of those who weep.
- NLT My harp plays sad music, and my flute accompanies those who weep.
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's harp and pipe, once instruments of joy, are now tuned only to mourning and weeping. It marks the total turning of his gladness into grief.
Overview
Job closes this chapter by noting that his music, which once expressed celebration, now produces only sounds of sorrow. The reversal of joy into lament summarizes his whole experience of loss. The verse reminds us that earthly joys are fragile, yet it also anticipates the gospel reversal in which God turns the believer's mourning into dancing and clothes them with gladness through the redeeming work of Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Lam 5:15Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.
- Isa 21:4My heart falters; fear makes me tremble. The twilight of my desire has turned to horror.
- Isa 22:12On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.
- Isa 24:7–9The new wine dries up, the vine withers. All the merrymakers now groan.
- Eccl 3:4a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
- Ps 137:1–4By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
- Dan 6:18Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting. No entertainment was brought before him, and sleep fled from him.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 30:31 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.