1 “But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs. 2 Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished? 3 They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation. 4 They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom are their food.5 They are driven out from amongst men. They cry after them as after a thief; 6 so that they dwell in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks. 7 Amongst the bushes they bray; and under the nettles they are gathered together. 8 They are children of fools, yes, children of base men. They were flogged out of the land. 9 “Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them. 10 They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don’t hesitate to spit in my face. 11 For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have thrown off restraint before me. 12 On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, They cast up against me their ways of destruction. 13 They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, without anyone’s help. 14 As through a wide breach they come, in the middle of the ruin they roll themselves in. 15 Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud. 16 “Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold on me. 17 In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest. 18 By great force is my garment disfigured. It binds me about as the collar of my coat. 19 He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes. 20 I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me. 21 You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me. 22 You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm. 23 For I know that you will bring me to death, to the house appointed for all living. 24 “However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help? 25 Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy? 26 When I looked for good, then evil came; when I waited for light, there came darkness. 27 My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest. Days of affliction have come on me. 28 I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help. 29 I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches. 30 My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burnt with heat. 31 Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary, 1706
Verses 1–14
Job contrasts his present condition with his former honour and authority. What little cause have men to be ambitious or proud of that which may be so easily lost, and what little confidence is to be put in it! We should not be cast down if we are despised, reviled, and hated by wicked men. We should look to Jesus, who endured the contradiction of sinners.
Verses 15–31
Job complains a great deal. Harbouring hard thoughts of God was the sin which did, at this time, most easily beset Job. When inward temptations join with outward calamities, the soul is hurried as in a tempest, and is filled with confusion. But woe be to those who really have God for an enemy! Compared with the awful state of ungodly men, what are all outward, or even inward temporal afflictions? There is something with which Job comforts himself, yet it is but a little. He foresees that death will be the end of all his troubles. God’s wrath might bring him to death; but his soul would be safe and happy in the world of spirits. If none pity us, yet our God, who corrects, pities us, even as a father pitieth his own children. And let us look more to the things of eternity: then the believer will cease from mourning, and joyfully praise redeeming love.