Job 30

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¹But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock. ✦ ²Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished? ³For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste. ✦ ⁴Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat. ✦ ⁵They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;) ✦ ⁶To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks. ✦ ⁷Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together. ✦ ⁸They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth. ✦ ⁹And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword. ✦ ¹⁰They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face. ✦ ¹¹Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me. ✦ ¹²Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction. ✦ ¹³They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper. ✦ ¹⁴They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me. ✦ ¹⁵Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud. ✦ ¹⁶And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me. ✦ ¹⁷My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest. ✦ ¹⁸By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat. ✦ ¹⁹He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes. ✦ ²⁰I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not. ✦ ²¹Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me. ✦ ²²Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance. ✦ ²³For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living. ✦ ²⁴Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction. ✦ ²⁵Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor? ✦ ²⁶When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. ✦ ²⁷My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me. ✦ ²⁸I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation. ✦ ²⁹I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls. ✦ ³⁰My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat. ✦ ³¹My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep. ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Where this chapter connects

Job 19 ·12 Ps 69 ·6 Lam 3 ·6 Ps 35 ·5 Job 7 ·5 Ps 22 ·4 Job 12 ·4 Job 3 ·4

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 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.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Job videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Job 30YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Job 30David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on JobMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Job 30Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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