My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.
Parallel translations
- WEB Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.
- BSB My harp is tuned to mourning and my flute to the sound of weeping.
- 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 5:15The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
- Isa 21:4My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me.
- Isa 22:12And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
- Isa 24:7–9The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.
- 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, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
- Dan 6:18Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting: neither were instruments of musick brought before him: and his sleep went from him.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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.