the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
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THE MESSAGE
Job 30:24
Bible Study Resources
Dictionaries:
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- InternationalParallel Translations
Yet no one would stretch out his handagainst a ruined personwhen he cries out to him for helpbecause of his distress.
"However doesn't one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.
"Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster cry for help?
"Surely no one would hurt those who are ruined when they cry for help in their time of trouble.
"Surely one does not stretch out his hand against a broken man when he cries for help in his distress.
"However, does not one falling in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand? Or in his disaster [will he not] therefore cry out for help?
"Yet does one in a heap of ruins not reach out with his hand, Or in his disaster does he not cry out for help?
"However doesn't one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
Doubtles none can stretch his hand vnto the graue, though they cry in his destruction.
"Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,Or, in his upheaval, is there a cry for help because of them?
Yet no one stretches out his hand to a ruined man when he cries for help in his distress.
No one refuses help to others, when disaster strikes.
"Surely [God] wouldn't strike at a ruin, if in one's calamity one cried out to him for help.
Indeed, no prayer [availeth] when he stretcheth out [his] hand: though they cry when he destroyeth.
"Surely no one would attack a man who is already ruined, when he is hurt and crying for help.
But he will not stretch out his hand against me, and when I cry to him he will save me.
Why do you attack a ruined man, one who can do nothing but beg for pity?
"Surely someone must not send a hand against the needy when, in his misfortune, there is a cry of help for them.
Surely He will not stretch out His hand to the ruin heap; behold, they cry for help in their misfortune.
Now vse not me to do violece vnto the, yt are destroyed allready: but where hurte is done, there vse thei to helpe.
Howbeit doth not one stretch out the hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
Has not my hand been stretched out in help to the poor? have I not been a saviour to him in his trouble?
Surely none shall put forth his hand to a ruinous heap, neither because of these things shall help come in one's calamity,
Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the graue, though they cry in his destruction.
Notwithstanding, thou wilt not stretch out thyne hand against him that is in the graue: shal men crie out against him that is in destruction?
Oh then that I might lay hands upon myself, or at least ask another, and he should do this for me.
Surely against a ruinous heap he will not put forth his hand; though it be in his destruction, one may utter a cry because of these things.
Netheles thou sendist not out thin hond to the wastyng of hem; and if thei fallen doun, thou schalt saue.
Surely he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his desctruction. In calamity will that help?
Yet he will not stretch out [his] hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.
"Surely He would not stretch out His hand against a heap of ruins, If they cry out when He destroys it.
"Surely no one would turn against the needy when they cry for help in their trouble.
"Yet does not one in a destroyed place put out his hand, and in his trouble cry out for help?
"Surely one does not turn against the needy, when in disaster they cry for help.
Only, against a heap of ruins, will one not thrust a hand! Surely, when one is in calamity - for that very reason, is there an outcry for help.
But yet thou stretchest not forth thy hand to their consumption: and if they shall fall down thou wilt save.
"Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster cry for help?
Surely not against the heap Doth He send forth the hand, Though in its ruin they have safety.
"Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, Or in his disaster therefore cry out for help?
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
grave: Heb. heap
they cry: Judges 5:31, Psalms 35:25, Matthew 27:39-44
Reciprocal: Ecclesiastes 3:20 - go
Cross-References
When Rachel realized that she wasn't having any children for Jacob, she became jealous of her sister. She told Jacob, "Give me sons or I'll die!"
When Leah saw that she wasn't having any more children, she gave her maid Zilpah to Jacob for a wife. Zilpah had a son for Jacob. Leah said, "How fortunate!" and she named him Gad (Lucky). When Leah's maid Zilpah had a second son for Jacob, Leah said, "A happy day! The women will congratulate me in my happiness." So she named him Asher (Happy).
Leah said, "Wasn't it enough that you got my husband away from me? And now you also want my son's mandrakes?" Rachel said, "All right. I'll let him sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son's love-apples."
And then God remembered Rachel. God listened to her and opened her womb. She became pregnant and had a son. She said, "God has taken away my humiliation." She named him Joseph (Add), praying, "May God add yet another son to me."
God spoke to Jacob: "Go back to Bethel. Stay there and build an altar to the God who revealed himself to you when you were running for your life from your brother Esau." Jacob told his family and all those who lived with him, "Throw out all the alien gods which you have, take a good bath and put on clean clothes, we're going to Bethel. I'm going to build an altar there to the God who answered me when I was in trouble and has stuck with me everywhere I've gone since." They turned over to Jacob all the alien gods they'd been holding on to, along with their lucky-charm earrings. Jacob buried them under the oak tree in Shechem. Then they set out. A paralyzing fear descended on all the surrounding villages so that they were unable to pursue the sons of Jacob. Jacob and his company arrived at Luz, that is, Bethel, in the land of Canaan. He built an altar there and named it El-Bethel (God-of-Bethel) because that's where God revealed himself to him when he was running from his brother. And that's when Rebekah's nurse, Deborah, died. She was buried just below Bethel under the oak tree. It was named Allon-Bacuth (Weeping-Oak). God revealed himself once again to Jacob, after he had come back from Paddan Aram and blessed him: "Your name is Jacob (Heel); but that's your name no longer. From now on your name is Israel (God-Wrestler)." God continued, I am The Strong God. Have children! Flourish! A nation—a whole company of nations!— will come from you. Kings will come from your loins; the land I gave Abraham and Isaac I now give to you, and pass it on to your descendants. And then God was gone, ascended from the place where he had spoken with him. Jacob set up a stone pillar on the spot where God had spoken with him. He poured a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil. Jacob dedicated the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel (God's-House). They left Bethel. They were still quite a ways from Ephrath when Rachel went into labor—hard, hard labor. When her labor pains were at their worst, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid—you have another boy." With her last breath, for she was now dying, she named him Ben-oni (Son-of-My-Pain), but his father named him Ben-jamin (Son-of-Good-Fortune). Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem. Jacob set up a pillar to mark her grave. It is still there today, "Rachel's Grave Stone." Israel kept on his way and set up camp at Migdal Eder. While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went and slept with his father's concubine, Bilhah. And Israel heard of what he did. There were twelve sons of Jacob. The sons by Leah: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn Simeon Levi Judah Issachar Zebulun. The sons by Rachel: Joseph Benjamin. The sons by Bilhah, Rachel's maid: Dan Naphtali. The sons by Zilpah, Leah's maid: Gad Asher. These were Jacob's sons, born to him in Paddan Aram. Finally, Jacob made it back home to his father Isaac at Mamre in Kiriath Arba, present-day Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had lived. Isaac was now 180 years old. Isaac breathed his last and died—an old man full of years. He was buried with his family by his sons Esau and Jacob.
This is the story of Jacob. The story continues with Joseph, seventeen years old at the time, helping out his brothers in herding the flocks. These were his half brothers actually, the sons of his father's wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joseph brought his father bad reports on them.
Joseph was running the country; he was the one who gave out rations to all the people. When Joseph's brothers arrived, they treated him with honor, bowing to him. Joseph recognized them immediately, but treated them as strangers and spoke roughly to them. He said, "Where do you come from?" "From Canaan," they said. "We've come to buy food."
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Howbeit he will not stretch out [his] hand to the grave,.... Or, "verily" h, truly he will not, c. I am well assured he never will, meaning either he never would stretch out his hand to shut up the grave or rather keep it shut, and prevent Job from going down into it; or to open it, and fetch him out of it when in it: God is indeed able to do either of these, and has done it; sometimes, when persons are brought as it were to the gates of death and the grave, he says to them, Return; yea, when they are brought to the dust of death, he prevents them going into the grave, by restoring them to life before carried thither, as the Shunammite's son, 2 Kings 4:32; Jairus's daughter, Mark 5:41; and the widow's son of Nain, even when he was carrying to his grave, Luke 7:12; some have been laid in the grave, and God has stretched out his hand, and raised them up again; as the man that was laid in Elisha's grave, 2 Kings 13:21, and Lazarus after he had lain in the grave some days, John 11:39; but such things are not usually done; in common, when a man dies, and is laid in the grave, he rises not again, till the heavens be no more; and this Job was persuaded would be his case:
though they cry in his destruction; that is, though the friends and relations of the sick person, or the poor that he has been kind and bountiful unto, should cry unto God, while he is destroying him by the diseases upon him, and which threaten him with destruction, that he would spare his useful and valuable life; yet he is inexorable, and will not hear, but go on with what he intends to do, and takes him off by death, and lays him in the grave, "the pit of destruction",
Psalms 55:23, so called because it wastes and consumes bodies laid in it; and when once laid there, all cries for a restoration to life again are vain and fruitless. Some take these words as expressed in a way of solace, as if Job comforted himself with this thought under his present afflictions, that, when once he was brought to death and the grave, there would be an end of all his sorrow; the hand of the Lord, that was now stretched out on him in a terrible way, would be no longer stretched out on him; he would then cease to afflict him, and he should be where the weary are at rest; and so the last clause is read with an interrogation, "is there any cry", or "do any cry, in his destruction?" i; no, when death has done its office, and the body is laid in the grave, there is no more pain nor sorrow, nor crying; all tears are wiped away, and there is no more sense of afflictions and sufferings; they are all at an end. Mr. Broughton renders these words as to the sense the same, and as in connection with the following ones, "and prayed I not when plague was sent? when hurt came to any, thereupon cried I not?" and so do some others k.
h אך "verum", Mercerus; profecto, Drusius, Bolducius; "sane", Tigurine version. i אם בפידו להן שוע "aut clamant aliqui post obitum suum?" Tigurine version; "si in contritione ejus eis clamor?" Montanus, Bolducius. k Junius & Tremellius.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave - Margin, heap. In our common version this verse conveys no very clear idea, and it is quite evident that our translators despaired of giving it a consistent sense, and attempted merely to translate it literally. The verse has been rendered by every expositor almost in his own way; and though almost no two of them agree, yet it is remarkable that the versions given are all beautiful, and furnish a sense that agrees well with the scope of the passage. The Vulgate renders it, “But not to their consumption wilt thou send forth their hand; and if they fall, thou wilt save them.” The Septuagint,” For O that I could lay violent hands on myself, or beseech another, and he would do it for me Luther renders it, “Yet he shall not stretch out the hand to the charnelhouse, and they shall not cry before his destruction.” Noyes:
“When he stretcheth out his hand, prayer
availeth nothing,
When he bringeth destruction, vain is the
Cry for help.”
Umbreit renders it:
Nur mog’ er nicht an den zerstorten Haufen
Hand anlegen!
Oder mussen jene selbst in ihrem
Tode schreien?
“Only if he would not lay his hand upon the
Heaps of the destroyed!
Or must these also cry out in their death?”
According to this interpretation, Job speaks here in bitter irony. “I would gladly die,” says he, “if God would only suffer me to be quiet when I am dead.” He would be willing that the edifice of the body should be taken down, provided the ruins might rest in peace. Rosenmuller gives the same sense as that expressed by Noyes. Amidst this variety of interpretation, it is by no means easy to determine on the true meaning of the passage. The principal difficulty in the exposition lies in the word בעי be‛ı̂y, rendered in the text “in the grave,” and in the margin “heap.” If that word is compounded of the preposition ב be and עי ‛ı̂y, it means literally, “in ruins, or in rubbish” - for so the word עי ‛ı̂y is used in Micah 1:6; Jeremiah 26:18; Micah 3:12; Psalms 79:1; Nehemiah 4:2, Nehemiah 4:10. But Gesenius supposes it to be a single word, from the obsolete root בעה, Chaldee בעא, “to pray, to petition”; and according to this the meaning is, “Yea, prayer is nought when he stretches out his hand; and in his (God’s) destruction, their cry availeth not.”
Prof. Lee understands the word (בעי be‛ı̂y) in the same sense, but gives a somewhat different meaning to the whole passage. According to him the meaning is, “Nevertheless, upon prayer thou wilt not lay thine hand; surely, when he destroyeth, in this alone there is safety.” Schultens accords very nearly in the sentiment expressed by Umbreit, and renders it, “Yet not even in the tomb would he relax his hand, if in its destruction an alleviation were there.” This sentiment is very strong, and borders on impiety, and should not be adopted if it is possible to avoid it. It looks as if Job felt that God was disposed to pursue his animosity even into the regions of the dead, and that he would have pleasure in carrying on the work of destruction and affliction in the ruins of the grave. After the most careful examination which I have been able to give of this difficult passage, it seems probable to me that the following is the correct sense.
Job means to state a general and important principle - that there was rest in the grave. He said he knew that God would bring him down there, but that would be a state of repose. The hand of God producing pain, would not reach there, nor would the sorrows experienced in this world be felt there, provided there had been a praying life. Notwithstanding all his afflictions, therefore, and his certain conviction that he would die, he had unwavering confidence in God. Agreeably to this, the following paraphrase will convey the true sense. “I know that he will bring me to the grave. Nevertheless (אך 'ak), over the ruins (בעי be‛ı̂y) - of my body, the ruins in the grave - “he will not stretch out his hand” - to afflict me there or to pursue those who lie there with calamity and judgment; if in his destruction (בפידו bepı̂ydô) - in the destruction or desolation which God brings upon people - among them (להן lâhên) - among those who are thus consigned to the ruins of the grave - there is prayer (שׁוע shûa‛); if there has been supplication offered to him, or a cry for mercy has gone up before him.” This paraphrase embraces every word of the original; saves the necessity of attempting to change the text, as has been often done, and gives a meaning which accords with the scope of the passage, and with the uniform belief of Job, that God would ultimately vindicate him, and show that he himself was right in his government.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Job 30:24. He will not stretch out his hand to the grave — After all that has been said relative to the just translation and true meaning of this verse, is it not evident that it is in the mouth of Job a consolatory reflection? As if he said, Though I suffer here, I shall not suffer hereafter. Though he add stroke to stroke, so as to destroy my life, yet his displeasure shall not proceed beyond the grave.
Though they cry in his destruction. — Mr. Good translates: Surely there, in its ruin, is freedom. In the sepulchre there is freedom from calamity, and rest for the weary.
