Job 30:1 - Meaning and Application

Here Job pours out a deep and painful complaint about the disgrace he had fallen into. He had gone from honor and respect to shame, and that was especially bitter for a man like Job, who had an honest and tender spirit. He says two things made his suffering even harder, the low rank of the people who insulted him, and the harshness of their attacks.

First, those who mocked him were beneath him in every way. In his prosperous days, princes and nobles had shown him respect, and that had added to his honor. Now, in his trouble, he was being kicked around by men who were not only far below him, but were among the most worthless people in the land. They were young men, much younger than he was, and should have treated him with respect because of his age and wisdom. Even their children mocked him, like the children at Bethel mocking the prophet and saying, "Go up, bald head" (2 Kings 2:23).

They were also from a mean and shabby family line. Their fathers were so contemptible that Job would not have trusted them with the lowest work in his house, even tending sheep and helping the shepherds with his flock (Job 30:1). He is not saying he actually did that, only that they were so untrustworthy, lazy, and foolish that they were not fit for even humble service. Job knew better than to treat people as less than human, but he is showing how low these men were in character.

They were also useless and burdensome people. Job could get no real work from them, because the young were too lazy and awkward to be useful, and the old had no wisdom left in them to guide others (Job 30:2). They were extremely poor as well, but their poverty was tied to their own laziness. They would not dig for food, and they were too ashamed to beg, so they wandered into deserts and lived by scraping together whatever they could find (Job 30:3). Hunger had driven them to eat mallows from the bushes, a very rough and poor kind of food (Job 30:4).

They were not only poor, but wicked and harmful. They were the kind of people that rulers would want to drive out of the land, and the crowd would shout after them as if they were thieves (Job 30:5). Because they would not work, they were rightly accused of taking from others in effect, since those who do not earn their own bread by honest labor are, in a sense, stealing it from others. They were forced to live in caves and among bushes, where they cried out and suffered in misery (Job 30:6-7). They found no comfort there, only pain, fear, and shame.

Job says they were people with nothing good in them at all. They were a vile group, without any good name or reputation, so low that nobody would speak well of them. It is hard to imagine human nature sinking so far, and Job says that when we thank God we are human, we should also thank him that we are not such men. Yet these were the very people who abused him, partly because he had once dealt with such vagabonds as a good magistrate and punished them under the law, and partly because they now thought he had become like one of them.

Second, Job describes how badly they treated him. They made songs about him and turned his misery into a joke (Job 30:9). That kind of mockery shows a very mean spirit, since they were laughing at the suffering of an honest man. They avoided him as if he were a disease, fleeing from him with disgust (Job 30:10). And they showed open contempt, spitting in his face or being ready to do so, tripping him, pushing him, and kicking him (Job 30:12). They treated him like a plaything, as if his pain were something to laugh at.

Even the best of God’s people may receive the worst treatment from a wicked and scornful world. Job’s suffering was deeply shameful, but it was not strange. In this, he was sharing something of the path that faithful servants often walk, and even their Master was treated in a similar way.

They were very cruel to him. They did not just laugh at him, they also tried to do real harm. The sense is, “They rise up against me and bring on my ruin,” or, as some read it, “They lay the blame for their own trouble on me.” That is, they blamed Job for being driven out, and it is common for guilty people to hate the laws and judges that punish them.

Under this excuse, they accused him falsely and twisted the story of his life, which is called marring his path. They spoke of him as a tyrant and oppressor because he had done justice against them. Job’s friends may even have built their harsh judgments in Job 22:6 and following on the unfair complaints of these worthless people. That would have shown great weakness and poor judgment, for who could count as innocent if such people’s accusations are accepted?

They also did more than mock his suffering, they made it worse. It is a serious sin to add to anyone’s trouble, especially to the trouble of good people. No one pushed them into this, and no one supported them in it. They chose to do it themselves. They were foolish in many things, yet wise enough when it came to doing harm, and they needed no help in planning mischief.

Some read the words to mean, “They count my misery as gain, even though they do not benefit from it.” Wicked people often rejoice in other people’s trouble, even when they get nothing from it.

Those who wronged Job were many, united, and violent (Job 30:14). They came against him like floodwaters breaking through a dam, or like soldiers rushing through a wide breach in a wall after a city has been broken open. They came with great force, and they took pride and pleasure in it. They rolled in his ruin as if it were a soft bed, and they pressed on him with all the weight of their hatred.

All this contempt came because of the trouble Job was already in (Job 30:11). Because God had loosened the cord of his honor and power, taken away what had strengthened and held him up (Job 12:18), and broken apart his former ease, these people felt free to attack him. Once God had stripped him of honor, they treated him with contempt. If God loosens the restraint on people’s malice, they will say and do what they please.

The original can also be read, “Because he has loosened his cord,” meaning that God had taken away the restraint he had placed on their wickedness. Then they cast off all restraint toward Job, showing no respect for his authority or standing. It is only because God still holds the consciences of even bad people, and still restrains them, that we are not always treated this way. When we are insulted like this, we must recognize God’s hand in removing that restraint, just as David did when Shimei cursed him: “Let him curse, for the Lord has told him to” (2 Samuel 16:10).

From this we may see how uncertain worldly honor is, especially public praise. A man can fall quickly from high honor into deep shame. So people have little reason to be proud of, or trust in, what can be lost so easily. Those who shout “Hosanna” today may shout “Crucify” tomorrow. But there is an honor from God, and if we seek that and keep it, we will find it does not change and slip away like human praise.

We also see that wise and good people have often been trampled on and insulted. And those who judge only by what they can see despise people when the world turns against them, even if heaven still favors them. There is nothing harder in poverty than being made to feel contemptible. As the saying goes, the Roman crowd followed fortune and kept hating those who had fallen.

In Job, we also see a picture of Christ, who was made “a reproach of men and despised by the people” (Psalm 22:6; Isaiah 53:3). Christ did not hide his face from shame and spitting, and he bore that disgrace more perfectly than Job did.