Lectionary Calendar
Saturday, August 2nd, 2025
the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
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Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Job 30:25

This verse is not available in the MSG!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Poor;   Works;   Thompson Chain Reference - Social Duties;   Sympathy;   Sympathy-Pitilessness;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Compassion and Sympathy;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Consolation;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Job;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Job, the Book of;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Mourning;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Poor;   Soul;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Have I not wept for those who have fallen on hard times?Has my soul not grieved for the needy?
Hebrew Names Version
Didn't I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn't my soul grieved for the needy?
King James Version
Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor?
English Standard Version
Did not I weep for him whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
New Century Version
I cried for those who were in trouble; I have been very sad for poor people.
New English Translation
Have I not wept for the unfortunate? Was not my soul grieved for the poor?
Amplified Bible
"Did I not weep for one whose life was hard and filled with trouble? Was not my heart grieved for the needy?
New American Standard Bible
"Have I not wept for the one whose life is hard? Was my soul not grieved for the needy?
World English Bible
Didn't I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn't my soul grieved for the needy?
Geneva Bible (1587)
Did not I weepe with him that was in trouble? was not my soule in heauinesse for the poore?
Legacy Standard Bible
Have I not wept for the one whose life is hard?Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
Berean Standard Bible
Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has my soul not grieved for the needy?
Contemporary English Version
I mourned for the poor and those who suffered.
Complete Jewish Bible
Didn't I weep for those who were in trouble? Didn't I grieve for the needy?
Darby Translation
Did not I weep for him whose days were hard? was not my soul grieved for the needy?
Easy-to-Read Version
God, you know that I cried for those who were in trouble. You know that I mourned for the poor.
George Lamsa Translation
I have wept for the poor in the daytime, and my soul was grieved for the fatherless.
Good News Translation
Didn't I weep with people in trouble and feel sorry for those in need?
Lexham English Bible
Have I not wept for the unfortunate, and grieved myself over the poor?
Literal Translation
Did I not weep for him whose day is hard; and my soul grieved for the poor?
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Dyd not I wepe in ye tyme of trouble? Had not my soule copassion vpo ye poore?
American Standard Version
Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
Bible in Basic English
Have I not been weeping for the crushed? and was not my soul sad for him who was in need?
JPS Old Testament (1917)
If I have not wept for him that was in trouble, and if my soul grieved not for the needy.
King James Version (1611)
Did not I weepe for him that was in trouble? was not my soule grieued for the poore?
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Dyd not I weepe with hym that was in trouble? Had not my soule compassion vpon the poore?
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Yet I wept over every helpless man; I groaned when I saw a man in distress.
English Revised Version
Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the needy?
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Y wepte sum tyme on him, that was turmentid, and my soule hadde compassioun on a pore man.
Update Bible Version
Didn't I weep for him that was in trouble? Wasn't my soul grieved for the needy?
Webster's Bible Translation
Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was [not] my soul grieved for the poor?
New King James Version
Have I not wept for him who was in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor?
New Living Translation
Did I not weep for those in trouble? Was I not deeply grieved for the needy?
New Life Bible
Have I not cried for the one whose life is hard? Was not my soul filled with sorrow for the poor?
New Revised Standard
Did I not weep for those whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the poor?
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Verily I wept, for him whose lot was hard, Grieved was my soul, for the needy.
Douay-Rheims Bible
I wept heretofore for him that was afflicted, and my soul had compassion on the poor.
Revised Standard Version
Did not I weep for him whose day was hard? Was not my soul grieved for the poor?
Young's Literal Translation
Did not I weep for him whose day is hard? Grieved hath my soul for the needy.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Have I not wept for the one whose life is hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

Contextual Overview

16"And now my life drains out, as suffering seizes and grips me hard. Night gnaws at my bones; the pain never lets up. I am tied hand and foot, my neck in a noose. I twist and turn. Thrown facedown in the muck, I'm a muddy mess, inside and out. 20"I shout for help, God, and get nothing, no answer! I stand to face you in protest, and you give me a blank stare! You've turned into my tormenter— you slap me around, knock me about. You raised me up so I was riding high and then dropped me, and I crashed. I know you're determined to kill me, to put me six feet under. 24"What did I do to deserve this? Did I ever hit anyone who was calling for help? Haven't I wept for those who live a hard life, been heartsick over the lot of the poor? But where did it get me? I expected good but evil showed up. I looked for light but darkness fell. My stomach's in a constant churning, never settles down. Each day confronts me with more suffering. I walk under a black cloud. The sun is gone. I stand in the congregation and protest. I howl with the jackals, I hoot with the owls. I'm black-and-blue all over, burning up with fever. My fiddle plays nothing but the blues; my mouth harp wails laments."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Did not I: Psalms 35:13, Psalms 35:14, Jeremiah 13:17, Jeremiah 18:20, Luke 19:41, John 11:35, Romans 12:15

in trouble: Heb. hard of day

was: Job 31:16-21, Psalms 12:1, Proverbs 14:21, Proverbs 14:31, Proverbs 17:5, Proverbs 19:17, Proverbs 28:8, Isaiah 58:7, Isaiah 58:8, Daniel 4:27, 2 Corinthians 9:9

Cross-References

Genesis 18:33
When God finished talking with Abraham, he left. And Abraham went home.
Genesis 24:56
He said, "Oh, don't make me wait! God has worked everything out so well—send me off to my master."
Genesis 28:13
Then God was right before him, saying, "I am God , the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I'm giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they'll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth will bless themselves in you and your descendants. Yes. I'll stay with you, I'll protect you wherever you go, and I'll bring you back to this very ground. I'll stick with you until I've done everything I promised you."
Genesis 30:6
Rachel said, "God took my side and vindicated me. He listened to me and gave me a son." She named him Dan (Vindication). Rachel's maid Bilhah became pregnant again and gave Jacob a second son. Rachel said, "I've been in an all-out fight with my sister—and I've won." So she named him Naphtali (Fight).
Genesis 30:15
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."
Genesis 30:16
When Jacob came home that evening from the fields, Leah was there to meet him: "Sleep with me tonight; I've bartered my son's mandrakes for a night with you." So he slept with her that night. God listened to Leah; she became pregnant and gave Jacob a fifth son. She said, "God rewarded me for giving my maid to my husband." She named him Issachar (Bartered). Leah became pregnant yet again and gave Jacob a sixth son, saying, "God has given me a great gift. This time my husband will honor me with gifts—I've given him six sons!" She named him Zebulun (Honor). Last of all she had a daughter and named her Dinah.
Genesis 31:55
Jacob learned that Laban's sons were talking behind his back: "Jacob has used our father's wealth to make himself rich at our father's expense." At the same time, Jacob noticed that Laban had changed toward him. He wasn't treating him the same. That's when God said to Jacob, "Go back home where you were born. I'll go with you." So Jacob sent word for Rachel and Leah to meet him out in the field where his flocks were. He said, "I notice that your father has changed toward me; he doesn't treat me the same as before. But the God of my father hasn't changed; he's still with me. You know how hard I've worked for your father. Still, your father has cheated me over and over, changing my wages time and again. But God never let him really hurt me. If he said, ‘Your wages will consist of speckled animals' the whole flock would start having speckled lambs and kids. And if he said, ‘From now on your wages will be streaked animals' the whole flock would have streaked ones. Over and over God used your father's livestock to reward me. "Once, while the flocks were mating, I had a dream and saw the billy goats, all of them streaked, speckled, and mottled, mounting their mates. In the dream an angel of God called out to me, ‘Jacob!' "I said, ‘Yes?' "He said, ‘Watch closely. Notice that all the goats in the flock that are mating are streaked, speckled, and mottled. I know what Laban's been doing to you. I'm the God of Bethel where you consecrated a pillar and made a vow to me. Now be on your way, get out of this place, go home to your birthplace.'" Rachel and Leah said, "Has he treated us any better? Aren't we treated worse than outsiders? All he wanted was the money he got from selling us, and he's spent all that. Any wealth that God has seen fit to return to us from our father is justly ours and our children's. Go ahead. Do what God told you." Jacob did it. He put his children and his wives on camels and gathered all his livestock and everything he had gotten, everything acquired in Paddan Aram, to go back home to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. Laban was off shearing sheep. Rachel stole her father's household gods. And Jacob had concealed his plans so well that Laban the Aramean had no idea what was going on—he was totally in the dark. Jacob got away with everything he had and was soon across the Euphrates headed for the hill country of Gilead. Three days later, Laban got the news: "Jacob's run off." Laban rounded up his relatives and chased after him. Seven days later they caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. That night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and said, "Be careful what you do to Jacob, whether good or bad." When Laban reached him, Jacob's tents were pitched in the Gilead mountains; Laban pitched his tents there, too. "What do you mean," said Laban, "by keeping me in the dark and sneaking off, hauling my daughters off like prisoners of war? Why did you run off like a thief in the night? Why didn't you tell me? Why, I would have sent you off with a great celebration—music, timbrels, flutes! But you wouldn't permit me so much as a kiss for my daughters and grandchildren. It was a stupid thing for you to do. If I had a mind to, I could destroy you right now, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, ‘Be careful what you do to Jacob, whether good or bad.' I understand. You left because you were homesick. But why did you steal my household gods?" Jacob answered Laban, "I was afraid. I thought you would take your daughters away from me by brute force. But as far as your gods are concerned, if you find that anybody here has them, that person dies. With all of us watching, look around. If you find anything here that belongs to you, take it." Jacob didn't know that Rachel had stolen the gods. Laban went through Jacob's tent, Leah's tent, and the tents of the two maids but didn't find them. He went from Leah's tent to Rachel's. But Rachel had taken the household gods, put them inside a camel cushion, and was sitting on them. When Laban had gone through the tent, searching high and low without finding a thing, Rachel said to her father, "Don't think I'm being disrespectful, my master, that I can't stand before you, but I'm having my period." So even though he turned the place upside down in his search, he didn't find the household gods. Now it was Jacob's turn to get angry. He lit into Laban: "So what's my crime, what wrong have I done you that you badger me like this? You've ransacked the place. Have you turned up a single thing that's yours? Let's see it—display the evidence. Our two families can be the jury and decide between us. "In the twenty years I've worked for you, ewes and she-goats never miscarried. I never feasted on the rams from your flock. I never brought you a torn carcass killed by wild animals but that I paid for it out of my own pocket—actually, you made me pay whether it was my fault or not. I was out in all kinds of weather, from torrid heat to freezing cold, putting in many a sleepless night. For twenty years I've done this: I slaved away fourteen years for your two daughters and another six years for your flock and you changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not stuck with me, you would have sent me off penniless. But God saw the fix I was in and how hard I had worked and last night rendered his verdict." Laban defended himself: "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flock is my flock—everything you see is mine. But what can I do about my daughters or for the children they've had? So let's settle things between us, make a covenant—God will be the witness between us." Jacob took a stone and set it upright as a pillar. Jacob called his family around, "Get stones!" They gathered stones and heaped them up and then ate there beside the pile of stones. Laban named it in Aramaic, Yegar-sahadutha (Witness Monument); Jacob echoed the naming in Hebrew, Galeed (Witness Monument). Laban said, "This monument of stones will be a witness, beginning now, between you and me." (That's why it is called Galeed—Witness Monument.) It is also called Mizpah (Watchtower) because Laban said, " God keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other's sight. If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives when there's no one around to see you, God will see you and stand witness between us." Laban continued to Jacob, "This monument of stones and this stone pillar that I have set up is a witness, a witness that I won't cross this line to hurt you and you won't cross this line to hurt me. The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor (the God of their ancestor) will keep things straight between us." Jacob promised, swearing by the Fear, the God of his father Isaac. Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and worshiped, calling in all his family members to the meal. They ate and slept that night on the mountain. Laban got up early the next morning, kissed his grandchildren and his daughters, blessed them, and then set off for home.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Did not I weep for him that was in trouble?.... In outward trouble, whether personal in his own body, or in his family, or in his worldly affairs, or from wicked men, the men of the world; or in inward trouble, in soul trouble, on account of indwelling sin, the breakings forth of it, the lowness of grace, as to exercise, the hidings of God's face, and the temptations of Satan: or "for him that is hard of day" l; with whom times are hard, the days are evil, with respect either to things temporal or spiritual; now Job had a sympathizing heart with such persons; he wept with them that wept; his bowels yearned towards them; he felt their sufferings and their sorrows, which is a Godlike frame of soul; for God, in all the afflictions of his people, is afflicted; a disposition of mind like that of the living Redeemer, who cannot but be touched with the feeling of the infirmities of saints, having been in all points tempted as they; and is a fruit of the Spirit of God, and very becoming the relation the saints stand in to one another, being members of the same body, and of each other; and therefore, when one member suffers, all the rest should sympathize with it, and, being brethren, should be loving, pitiful, and courteous to each other; and should consider that they also are in the body, and liable to the same distresses, whether outward or inward:

was [not] my soul grieved for the poor? in general, and especially for the Lord's poor, for such in all ages have been chosen and called by him; for these Job was grieved at heart, when he saw their distress through poverty; and he not only expressed his concern for them by tears and words, but by distributing liberally to their necessities,

Job 31:17; and by which he showed his grief was real, hearty, and sincere, as here expressed; his soul was grieved, and he was sorry at his very heart for them: some render the words, "was not my soul like a pool of water?" m not only his head and his eyes, as Jeremiah's on another account, but his soul melted, and flowed like water with grief for them; and others, as Mr. Broughton, "did not my soul burn for the poor?" with sorrow for them, and an ardent desire to relieve them; see 2 Corinthians 9:12; now this was the frame of Job's mind in the time of his prosperity, very different from that in Amos 6:4; and was certain and well known; he could appeal to all that knew him for the truth of it, it being what, none could deny that had any knowledge of him; yea, he could appeal to an omniscient God, he was now speaking to, for the truth of it; nay, it is delivered in the form of an oath, "if I did not weep", c. n, as in Job 31:16.

l לקשה יום "ob durum die", Montanus, Mercerus, Drusius "cui dura crant tempora", Junius Tremellius "ei cui durus dies", Cocceius. m עצמה "restagnavit", some in Mercerus. n אם לא בכיתי "si non deflevi", Tigurine version; "si non flevi", Piscator.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Did not I weep ... - Job here appeals to his former life, and says that it had been a characteristic of his life to manifest compassion to the afflicted and the poor. His object in doing this is, evidently, to show how remarkable it was that he was so much afflicted. “Did I deserve,” the sense is, “such a hard lot? Has it been brought on me by my own fault, or as a punishment for a life where no compassion was shown to others?” So far from it, he says, that his whole life had been distinguished for tender compassion for those in distress and want.

In trouble - Margin, as in Hebrew, hard of day. So we say, “a man has a hard time of it,” or has a hard lot.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 30:25. Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? — Mr. Good translates much nearer the sense of the original, לקשה יום liksheh yom. "Should I not then weep for the ruthless day?" May I not lament that my sufferings are only to terminate with my life? Or, Did I not mourn for those who suffered by times of calamity?

Was not my soul grieved for the poor? Did I not relieve the distressed according to my power; and did I not sympathize with the sufferer?


 
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