Nightfall on the gray ash heap: a small wrapped man alone, seen from behind, with thin jackals on a ridge far beyond and a calm, dark, empty sky above.

The Book of

Job 30

Job speaks on. Chapter 29 was then. This is now. His last speech reaches the bottom.

31 verses≈ 4 min1 personBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1–3The testBlameless, stripped of everything, and his cry
4–14Round oneThe friends speak; Job answers
15–21Round twoMy Redeemer lives
22–31Round threeThen wisdom, and Job's last defenseChapter 30
32–37ElihuA younger voice
38–41The LORD speaksOut of the whirlwind
42The endJob prays and is restored

Job’s Honor Turned to Contempt

Job

“But now they mock me,

men younger than I am,

whose fathers I would have refused

to put with my sheep dogs.

What use to me was the strength of their hands,

since their vigor had left them?

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Job

But now they mock me

Job 30:1

Job

Reflect

Who is at the bottom?

Job once rescued the outcast. Now the outcasts jeer at him. Have you ever been treated as less than you are? Who around you is treated that way?

Job

Job

And now they mock me in song;

I have become a byword among them.

They abhor me and keep far from me;

they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

Job

Because God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me,

they have cast off restraint in my presence.

The rabble arises at my right;

they lay snares for my feet

and build siege ramps against me.

They tear up my path;

they profit from my destruction,

with no one to restrain them.

They advance as through a wide breach;

through the ruins they keep rolling in.

Job’s Prosperity Becomes Calamity

Job

Job

Terrors are turned loose against me;

they drive away my dignity as by the wind,

and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.

Job

And now my soul is poured out within me;

days of affliction grip me.

Night pierces my bones,

and my gnawing pains never rest.

With great force He grasps my garment;

He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.

He throws me into the mud,

and I have become like dust and ashes.

Job

A black night storm over the gray ash heap, wind tearing at ash and dust, a small bowed man seen from behind with his cloak streaming, under smooth dark cloud.

I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer;

when I stand up, You merely look at me.

You have ruthlessly turned on me;

You oppose me with Your strong hand.

You snatch me up into the wind

and drive me before it;

You toss me about in the storm.

Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death,

to the place appointed for all the living.

0:22

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Question

Quick question

Watch the small words.

Who does Job turn and speak to at verse 20?

Job

Yet no one stretches out his hand against a ruined man

when he cries for help in his distress.

Have I not wept for those in trouble?

Has my soul not grieved for the needy?

Job

Job 30:26

Job

Job

I am churning within and cannot rest;

days of affliction confront me.

I go about blackened, but not by the sun.

I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

I have become a brother of jackals,

a companion of ostriches.

Job

My skin grows black and peels,

and my bones burn with fever.

Job

Job

My harp is tuned to mourning

and my flute to the sound of weeping.

Then and now

Whiteboard

The same man in two chapters, line for line. What lies between them is chapter 1, and he has never been told.

Pray

Pray for those who are mocked and alone tonight. Pray for anyone crying to God and hearing nothing. Ask to be one of the people who weep with them.

You’ve experienced

Job 30

0 of 42 chapters read

A verse to carry with you

But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.

Job 30:26

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