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Jó 30

ARC · Chapter 30/42

1Porém agora se riem de mim os de menos edade do que eu, cujos paes eu teria desdenhado de pôr com os cães do meu rebanho.

2De que tambem me serviria a força das suas mãos?já de velhice se tinham esgotado n'elles.

3De mingua e fome andavam sós, e recolhiam-se para os logares seccos, tenebrosos, assolados e desertos.

4Apanhavam malvas junto aos arbustos, e o seu mantimento eram as raizes dos zimbros.

5Do meio dos homens foram expulsos, e gritavam contra elles, como contra o ladrão:

6Para habitarem nos barrancos dos valles, e nas cavernas da terra e das rochas.

7Bramavam entre os arbustos, e ajuntavam-se debaixo das ortigas.

8Eram filhos de doidos, e filhos de gente sem nome, e da terra foram expulsos.

9Porém agora sou a sua canção, e lhes sirvo de rifão.

10Abominam-me, e fogem para longe de mim, e do meu rosto não reteem o seu escarro.

11Porque Deus desatou o meu cordão, e me opprimiu, pelo que sacudiram de si o freio perante o meu rosto.

12Á direita se levantam os moços; empurram os meus pés, e preparam contra mim os seus caminhos de destruição.

13Desbarataram-me o meu caminho: promovem a minha miseria: não teem ajudador.

14Veem contra mim como por uma grande brecha, e revolvem-se entre a assolação.

15Sobrevieram-me pavores; como vento perseguem a minha honra, e como nuvem passou a minha felicidade.

16E agora derrama-se em mim a minha alma: os dias da afflicção se apoderaram de mim.

17De noite se me traspassam os meus ossos, e os pulsos das minhas veias não descançam.

18Pela grandeza da força das dôres se demudou o meu vestido, e elle como o cabeção da minha tunica me cinge.

19Lançou-me na lama, e fiquei similhante ao pó e á cinza.

20Clamo a ti, porém tu não me respondes: estou em pé, porém para mim não attentas.

21Tornaste-te a ser cruel contra mim: com a força da tua mão resistes violentamente.

22Levantas-me sobre o vento, fazes-me cavalgar sobre elle, e derretes-me o ser.

23Porque eu sei que me levarás á morte e á casa do ajuntamento determinado a todos os viventes.

24Porém não estenderá a mão para o montão de terra, se houve clamor n'elles contra mim na sua desventura.

25Porventura, não chorei sobre aquelle que estava afflicto? ou não se angustiou a minha alma pelo necessitado?

26Todavia aguardando eu o bem, então me veiu o mal, e esperando eu a luz, veiu a escuridão.

27As minhas entranhas ferveram e não estão quietas: os dias da afflicção me surprehenderam.

28Denegrido ando, porém não do sol, e, levantando-me na congregação, clamo por soccorro.

29Irmão me fiz dos dragões, e companheiro dos abestruzes.

30Ennegreceu-se a minha pelle sobre mim, e os meus ossos estão queimados do calor.

31Pelo que se trocou a minha harmonia em lamentação, e o meu orgão em voz dos que choram.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

In painful contrast to the previous chapter, Job describes his present humiliation, mocked even by contemptible young men whose fathers he would not have considered fit to work with his dogs. He laments his constant physical pain and feels that God has become cruel toward him.

Explanation

The deliberate contrast between past honor (chapter 29) and present humiliation (chapter 30) dramatically intensifies Job's suffering, showing how the loss of social status compounds the physical and spiritual pain he already experiences. The description of the young men who now mock him, sons of socially marginalized and starving people, illustrates the complete and humiliating reversal of his social position, something especially painful in a culture that placed such high value on public honor. Application for today: the loss of reputation and social respect, added to physical suffering, can be one of the most painful dimensions of a crisis, deserving recognition and compassion rather than further judgment.

Fun facts

  • The description of the mocking young men's fathers as people who "cut up mallows by the bushes" and ate "juniper roots" (verses 3-4) portrays the extreme poverty of marginalized groups living on the fringes of settled agricultural society, likely nomadic herders or fugitives.
  • The mention of Job becoming "a brother to dragons" (likely jackals) and "a companion to owls" (verse 29) uses desert animals associated with lament and desolation in Hebrew literature, reflecting his complete social and emotional isolation.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Jó 30:1Total contrast with the previous chapter: now Job is a laughingstock even to men younger than himself, whose fathers he would not have hired to tend his flock.
  2. Jó 30:2Job explains why even the fathers of his mockers were useless to him: they were already old and worn out, unfit even for their own work.
  3. Jó 30:3Those fathers lived hungry and alone, gnawing dry ground in desolate places — Job describes the extreme poverty behind the very people who now mock him.
  4. Jó 30:4They ate bitter shrubs and juniper roots — survival food of the harshest kind, showing just how marginal these people’s existence was.
  5. Jó 30:5They were driven out from human company and shouted at as if they were thieves — a picture of total social rejection.
  6. Jó 30:6They lived in the gullies of valleys and in caves in the earth and rocks — homes in the most inhospitable places imaginable.
  7. Jó 30:7They howled among the bushes and huddled together under nettles — an almost animal-like image of the degradation they lived in.
  8. Jó 30:8Job describes these people as “children of fools, yea, children of base men” — about as low a social origin as the era could imagine.
  9. Jó 30:9Becoming a mocking song or byword was one of the worst social humiliations possible in the ancient world — and that is exactly what Job says he has become.
  10. Jó 30:10Now it is the very descendants of these despised people who abhor Job and spit at the sight of him — the bitter irony of falling lower than those he once looked down on.
  11. Jó 30:11Job blames his own downfall: because God “hath loosed my cord” and afflicted him, this rabble has thrown off all restraint and shows him no respect.
  12. Jó 30:12Job describes an almost physical assault: the “rabble” rises up, pushes away his feet, and prepares ways of destruction against him.
  13. Jó 30:13They mar his path and further his calamity without needing anyone’s help — Job feels surrounded by an organized and effective hostility.
  14. Jó 30:14The image of invaders pouring through a wide breach describes an all-out assault, like an army advancing through a broken-down wall.
  15. Jó 30:15Terrors overwhelm Job; his dignity is pursued as if by the wind, and his former well-being has passed like a cloud — everything he had vanished far too fast.
  16. Jó 30:16Job’s soul “is poured out” within him, and the days of affliction now hold him completely in their grip.
  17. Jó 30:17At night his bones ache without ceasing, and even his sinews find no rest — the physical suffering intensifies exactly when sleep should bring relief.
  18. Jó 30:18This verse describes, in notoriously difficult wording, how the disease even distorted the fit of Job’s clothing on his swollen or wasted body.
  19. Jó 30:19Being cast into the mire and becoming like dust and ashes literally echoes the scene from chapter 2, Job sitting in the ashes — the physical and emotional images merge into one.
  20. Jó 30:20Job cries out for help and gets no answer; he stands waiting, but God only watches without acting — the central complaint of divine silence continues.
  21. Jó 30:21Job accuses God of having turned cruel, using the strength of His own hand to persecute him — a complete reversal of what he felt back in chapter 29.
  22. Jó 30:22The image of being lifted up by the wind and tossed about in a storm describes Job being violently thrown from side to side, with no control over his own life.
  23. Jó 30:23Job accepts that death, the common destiny of all the living, is now what awaits him — he no longer expects anything else.
  24. Jó 30:24This is one of the most difficult verses in the whole book, but the general sense is that Job feels he deserved at least a little compassion amid his own ruin, as anyone crying out for help deserves.
  25. Jó 30:25Job recalls that he wept for those who suffered and grieved for the needy — reinforcing that his past compassion makes the lack of compassion he now receives even more unjust.
  26. Jó 30:26The central contrast: Job looked for good and evil came, looked for light and darkness came instead — the exact opposite of what he seemed to deserve.
  27. Jó 30:27His inward parts boil without ceasing, and the days of affliction overtake him without relief — a description of constant inner suffering.
  28. Jó 30:28His skin has darkened “without the sun” — the disease, not the weather, changed his appearance — and even crying out in public, no one comes to help him.
  29. Jó 30:29Jackals and ostriches were animals of the desert and abandoned places. Job says he has become a brother to these creatures — meaning his only company now is the most isolated animals that exist.
  30. Jó 30:30His skin turning black and peeling, his bones burning with fever, continue the physical description of Job’s advancing disease.
  31. Jó 30:31The harp that once played joy has turned into an instrument of mourning; the musical pipe now sounds like weeping — the contrast with the festive life of chapter 29 could not be sharper.

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