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 burned with heat. 31 Therefore my harp has turned to mourning,
and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 30:15-31
Commentary on Job 30:15-31
(Read Job 30:15-31)
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.