Job 30 — Tyndale Study Notes
Job.29.1-31.40
Job contrasts his former happiness, honor, and wealth (ch 29) with his loss of social dignity and divine friendship (ch 30). He concludes his speech with wide-ranging oaths of innocence (ch 31).
Job.30.2-3
In the past, the most honorable members of society spoke well of Job (29:11); now, the least honorable mocked him (30:1) and spit in his face (30:10). Cp. Pss 35:15; 69:12; Mark 14:65; 15:17-20.
Job.30.5-6
live in frightening ravines, in caves and among the rocks: The wretched life of Job’s mockers resembled Israel’s situation under Midianite oppression (Judg 6:2), David’s life as he fled from Saul (1 Sam 22:1-2), and Elijah’s life as he awaited the Lord’s instruction (1 Kgs 17:3-8).
Job.30.9
They taunt me! See also 17:6; cp. Ps 69:12; Lam 3:14, 63.
Job.30.10
won’t come near me: See also 19:13-15; cp. Ps 88:8; Prov 19:7; Matt 26:56.
To spit in someone’s face was to display revulsion or contempt (Deut 25:9; Isa 50:6; Matt 26:67; 27:30; Mark 14:65).
Job.30.12-14
The series of images presented here is drawn from a military advance against a fortified city. Job had already used this image for God’s attack on him (19:10-12).
The word translated traps might refer to siege ramps raised against a city’s walls.
Job.30.15
terror: See also 6:4; 7:14; cp. Ps 88:15.
Job.30.18
God grabs . . . the collar of my coat: The Hebrew in this verse is difficult to translate; it could mean that Job feels like he is in a chokehold and is about to be thrown into the mud (cp. 30:19).
Job.30.19
dust and ashes: Earlier, Job was sitting “among the ashes” in anguish (2:8); later, he would “sit in dust and ashes to show . . . repentance” (42:6).
Job.30.20-21
you don’t answer: This was Job’s frequent complaint (9:16; 19:7; 23:2-9; 31:35), which God soon answered (38:1).
Job.30.22
Job felt tossed into the whirlwind and blown about like worthless straw or chaff (9:17; 21:18; 27:21; Ps 1:4; Isa 17:13).
Job.30.28
Before his testing began, Job had been respected in the public square (29:7-10, 21-25); he helped others who were in need (29:11-17).
Job.30.29
I am considered: Job might have been expressing what he thought of himself, how others viewed him, or both.
By claiming that he was a brother to jackals and a companion to owls, Job might have been describing himself as in the throes of lament (Mic 1:8). Jackals were associated with desolation or ruin (see Ps 63:10; Isa 13:22; 34:13; 35:7; Jer 9:11; 10:22; 49:33; 51:37; Lam 5:18; Ezek 13:4; Mal 1:3).
Job.30.30
The skin of a person who lived in comfortable circumstances was protected from the sun and wind; dark skin indicated physical and social decline (Lam 4:8; 5:10).