Job 30

Notes

But now, alas! the youths, who durst scarcely look me in the face, mock and deride me, even those whose infamous parents I would have disdained to have employed in attending my dogs, or in other of the vilest services; 2. Being indeed so lazy, listless, and weak, that it was in vain to employ them in anything, after they had lived so long abandoning themselves to wickedness; 3-8. Base and beggarly fellows, who, ashamed of their poverty, and to prevent the punishment of their wickedness, had fled into deserts; and there, like wild beasts, lived upon roots and herbs, and lodged in dens, caves, and bushes. 9. But now they triumph over me, and make my calamities the subject of their songs and merry conversation. 10. Heartily abhorring me, they disdain to come near me, unless it be contemptuously to spit in my face. 11. Because God has deprived me of my authority, wealth, and honour, and has grievously afflicted me, they take an unrestrained liberty in their insolent behaviour towards me. 12. The very boys place themselves as my accusers; they insolently abuse me; and attempt, by different methods, to destroy me. 13. They endeavour to obstruct all means of comfort and relief to me. They so disturb my mind that I know not what to do. Without having or needing any assistance, they in the most presumptuous manner increase my calamities. 14. With the most furious and destructive violence they assault me; and when God has deprived me of my substance, family and health, they insult me in the most noisy forms. 15. Terrors directed by God against me, seize upon me in the most violent and irresistible manner; and my abundant prosperity is quickly, in a moment, over and gone. 16. By reason of my terrible afflictions my courage and resolution are quite exhausted, and the powers of my soul so wasted that I can do nothing but melt into tears and faint away with grief. 17. In the night, when others rest, my bones are, as it were, pierced and bruised with pain; and the worms, terrors, and agonies that torment me never take rest. 18. By their fearful force my boils, which cover me all over, are like an outer garment to me, and gird me round about; and their filthy matter stains my clothes, and glues them fast to my skin, that I can scarcely get them changed. 19. I am fearfully plunged into filthy troubles. My foul sores render me like dust and ashes, and reduce me to the point of death. 20. When I present myself before thee, O God, and continue instant in the most fervent supplications, thou dost but contemn me. 21, 22. Acting as an implacable enemy to me, thou exercisest thy almighty power to destroy me. Thou liftest me up to the wind of thy judgment, and makest me to ride upon it as stubble driven to and fro. My body is consumed by the violence of my trouble; and my firmest things are made to reel as the waters of the sea tossed with a storm. 23. Truly by thy thus dealing with me I see that I need look for nothing but death and the grave, that common sanctuary of mankind. 24. And I hope God will neither exert his almighty power to rescue me from the grave, nor let me in my passage cry out of pains, let friends entreat for my life as they will; nor use it to molest me there, but give me refreshing ease in the state of the dead. 25. Did not I always sympathize with others in their distress and poverty? And do not I now weep as one condemned to a period of trouble? Does not my soul, as a poor distressed object, pine away with grief? 26. For when I firmly expected great and lasting prosperity terrible miseries came upon me. 27. How insupportable are the inward torments of my body and the anguish of my soul! Days of fearful affliction have rushed upon me before I was aware. 28. I spend my days without any comfort; and sadness makes me quite unconcerned about light or any other agreeable object. My trouble forces me to cry out, be as many around me as will. 29. I can do nothing but seek to be alone, and hiss and howl over my dreadful case. 30. The hot moisture of my boils has rendered my skin black, and has inflamed all my bones. 31. All my joy and mirth are laid aside; and nothing but weeping and wailing are come in their stead.

Ver. 2. ['In whom old age (untaught by experience) had become profligate.'—Note, However melancholy be the sight of a thoughtless young man, still there is hope that time may teach him a better lesson; but of an abandoned old man, lost to all experience, what can we hope? Grace alone can teach either the young or the old; but the aged sinner is surely the more frightful picture. C.]

Ver. 24. [The 'stretching out' of God's hand, signifies his afflicting judgments. See Is. 9. 12, 17, 21. They will not pursue to the grave. C.]

Ver. 31. [That is, of them that weep for the dead. Of the plaintive and doleful cries for the dead, eastern travellers assure us that Europeans can form no conception without the actual hearing. C.]

Reflections.—Unsubstantial, uncertain, and transient are all things but God and the spiritual blessings of his blessed word. But sin, even on earth, makes many the most base and miserable of wretches; the youngest in age, the meanest in extraction, the poorest in property, and the most scandalous in character, are generally the most ready to contemn, insult, and abuse the greatest and best, when Providence once frowns upon them. And it is hard for wounded spirits to bear up under complicated troubles, terrors of mind, loathsome and painful diseases of body, and frowns of God. But happy are they who can by faith take up the eternal enjoyment of God as a full balance to all the troubles which they can suffer on earth! Happy are they who have the testimony of a good conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity they have had their conversation in this world!