Job 30:31 | KingComments | STEP | Job can no longer discover a ray of light. He goes “blackened, but not by the heat of the sun” as it also can be translated ( ). This is because of the illnesses that have affected him so severely and so extensively. This is how he goes; this is how he lives, from second to second, this is how his life ends. Job feels like a lonely wanderer in the darkness, although there is a circle of people around him, even if it is at a distance. When he gets up and calls for help, his cry for help is not addressed to them. It is a general cry for help, made from the greatest need, by someone who used to be ready to help people in need. He has become “a brother to jackals and a companion of ostriches”, of animals that shun people’s company and that people loathe ( ). In the sounds they make, the howling of jackals and the moaning of ostriches, they express the sorrow and lamentation of Job ( ). Job feels expelled from the fellowship of men and banished to these animals. His skin has turned black and is about to fall off ( ; cf. ). His body has been torn down by festering ulcers and his bones by burning fever. All joy is gone ( ). “Harp” and “flute” are used for expressions of joy, but Job can only use them to play songs of mourning and grief ( ). His voice chokes with the sobs of a crying one.

‏ Job 30:31

Everything Is Woe

Job can no longer discover a ray of light. He goes “blackened, but not by the heat of the sun” as it also can be translated (Job 30:28). This is because of the illnesses that have affected him so severely and so extensively. This is how he goes; this is how he lives, from second to second, this is how his life ends. Job feels like a lonely wanderer in the darkness, although there is a circle of people around him, even if it is at a distance. When he gets up and calls for help, his cry for help is not addressed to them. It is a general cry for help, made from the greatest need, by someone who used to be ready to help people in need.

He has become “a brother to jackals and a companion of ostriches”, of animals that shun people’s company and that people loathe (Job 30:29). In the sounds they make, the howling of jackals and the moaning of ostriches, they express the sorrow and lamentation of Job (Mic 1:8). Job feels expelled from the fellowship of men and banished to these animals.

His skin has turned black and is about to fall off (Job 30:30; cf. Lam 4:8). His body has been torn down by festering ulcers and his bones by burning fever. All joy is gone (Job 30:31). “Harp” and “flute” are used for expressions of joy, but Job can only use them to play songs of mourning and grief (Lam 5:15). His voice chokes with the sobs of a crying one.