Reflections on Job 30

 Job 30 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Young people now insult me, although their fathers would have been a disgrace to my sheep dogs.
2. And those who insult me are helpless themselves.
3. They must claw the desert sand in the dark for something to satisfy their hunger.
4. They gather tasteless shrubs for food and firewood,
5. and they are run out of towns, as though they were thieves.
6. Their only homes are ditches or holes between rocks,
7. where they bray like donkeys gathering around shrubs.
8. And like senseless donkeys they are chased away.
9. Those worthless nobodies make up jokes and songs to disgrace me.
10. They are hateful and keep their distance, even while spitting in my direction.
11. God has destroyed me, and so they don't care what they do.
12. Their attacks never stop, though I am defenseless, and my feet are trapped.
13. Without any help, they prevent my escape, destroying me completely
14. and leaving me crushed.
15. Terror has me surrounded; my reputation and my riches have vanished like a cloud.
16. I am sick at heart! Pain has taken its toll.
17. Night chews on my bones, causing endless torment,
18. and God has shrunk my skin, choking me to death.
19. I have been thrown in the dirt and now am dirt myself.
20. I beg God for help, but there is no answer; and when I stand up, he simply stares.
21. God has turned brutal,
22. stirring up a windstorm to toss me about.
23. Soon he will send me home to the world of the dead, where we all must go.
24. No one refuses help to others, when disaster strikes.
25. I mourned for the poor and those who suffered.
26. But when I beg for relief and light, all I receive are disaster and darkness.
27. My stomach is tied in knots; pain is my daily companion.
28. Suffering has scorched my skin, and in the city council I stand and cry out,
29. making mournful sounds like jackals and owls.
30. My skin is so parched, that it peels right off, and my bones are burning.
31. My only songs are sorrow and sadness.

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Job's fall was great. Not only had he lost everything he owned plus his family and his health, he had lost respect in the community. Before, he had the respect of the most upstanding leaders of the community, but now he was mocked by the sons of men he wouldn't put with his sheep dogs. These were men who had been "expelled from human society." These foolish young men mocked Job with their songs. In his weakened state they had no fear and had "cast off restraint in (Job's) presence." They looked for ways to trip him up and block his path.

Besides being mocked by the dregs of society, Job felt God had grabbed him by his clothes and thrown him in the mud. Though Job cried out to God for help, it seemed God only looked at him and remained silent. Instead of helping, it seemed God only harassed him with His "strong hand." Rather than restoring Job's health and prosperity, Job knew that God would instead "lead me to death." Though Job had previously comforted those who had fallen on hard times, "no one would stretch out his hand" to help Job. Job had become a brother to jackals.

Job's misery is unimaginable. I cannot claim to have suffered even a margin of what he did and yet have felt overwhelmed at times by the little suffering I have experienced. In Job's position I might have been greatly tempted to take the advise his wife gave him, to just, "Curse God and die!" But Job refused. He complained at God's injustice in bringing the suffering on him without giving him an audience, but he did not curse God nor turn away from God. If God was the cause of his suffering, God was also the only one who could relieve his suffering.