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Sunday, December 21st, 2025
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Read the Bible

The NET Bible®

Job 30:31

My harp is used for mourning and my flute for the sound of weeping.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Harp;   Music;   Thompson Chain Reference - Instruments, Chosen;   Music;   Musical Instruments;   Organs;   Tears;  

Dictionaries:

- Easton Bible Dictionary - Music, Instrumental;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Harp;   Organ;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Jackal;   Job, the Book of;   Organ;   Wisdom and Wise Men;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Pipe ;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Organ;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Music;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Harp and Lyre;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
My lyre is used for mourningand my flute for the sound of weeping.
Hebrew Names Version
Therefore is my harp turned to mourning, And my pipe into the voice of those who weep.
King James Version
My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.
English Standard Version
My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.
New Century Version
My harp is tuned to sing a sad song, and my flute is tuned to moaning.
Amplified Bible
"Therefore my lyre (harp) is used for [the sound of] mourning, And my flute for the [sound of the] voices of those who weep.
New American Standard Bible
"Therefore my harp is turned to mourning, And my flute to the sound of those who weep.
World English Bible
Therefore is my harp turned to mourning, And my pipe into the voice of those who weep.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Therefore mine harpe is turned to mourning, and mine organs into the voyce of them that weepe.
Legacy Standard Bible
Therefore my harp is turned to mourning,And my flute to the sound of those who weep.
Berean Standard Bible
My harp is tuned to mourning and my flute to the sound of weeping.
Contemporary English Version
My only songs are sorrow and sadness.
Complete Jewish Bible
So my lyre is tuned for mourning, my pipe to the voice of those who weep.
Darby Translation
My harp also is [turned] to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of weepers.
Easy-to-Read Version
My harp is tuned to play songs of sorrow. My flute makes sad sounds like someone crying.
George Lamsa Translation
My harp is also turned to mourning, and my song to the voice of those who weep.
Good News Translation
Where once I heard joyful music, now I hear only mourning and weeping.
Lexham English Bible
So my lyre came to be used for mourning, and my flute for the voice of those who weep.
Literal Translation
And my lyre has turned to mourning, and My flute vibrates to the sound of weeping.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
my harpe is turned to sorow, & my pipe to wepinge.
American Standard Version
Therefore is my harp turned to mourning, And my pipe into the voice of them that weep.
Bible in Basic English
And my music has been turned to sorrow, and the sound of my pipe into the noise of weeping.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Therefore is my harp turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of them that weep.
King James Version (1611)
My harpe also is turned to mourning, and my organe into the voyce of them that weepe.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
My harpe is turned to mourning, and my organs into the voyce of them that weepe.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
My harp also has been turned into mourning, and my song into my weeping.
English Revised Version
Therefore is my harp turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of them that weep.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Myn harpe is turned in to morenyng, and myn orgun in to the vois of weperis.
Update Bible Version
Therefore my harp is [turned] to mourning, And my pipe into the voice of those that weep.
Webster's Bible Translation
My harp also is [turned] to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.
New King James Version
My harp is turned to mourning, And my flute to the voice of those who weep.
New Living Translation
My harp plays sad music, and my flute accompanies those who weep.
New Life Bible
So my harp is turned to sorrow, and my horn to the sound of crying.
New Revised Standard
My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Thus is attuned to mourning - my lyre, and my flute, to the noise of them who weep.
Douay-Rheims Bible
My harp is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of those that weep.
Revised Standard Version
My lyre is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.
Young's Literal Translation
And my harp doth become mourning, And my organ the sound of weeping.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Therefore my harp is turned to mourning, And my flute to the sound of those who weep.

Contextual Overview

15 Terrors are turned loose on me; they drive away my honor like the wind, and like a cloud my deliverance has passed away. 16 "And now my soul pours itself out within me; days of suffering take hold of me. 17 Night pierces my bones; my gnawing pains never cease. 18 With great power God grasps my clothing; he binds me like the collar of my tunic. 19 He has flung me into the mud, and I have come to resemble dust and ashes. 20 I cry out to you, but you do not answer me; I stand up, and you only look at me. 21 You have become cruel to me; with the strength of your hand you attack me. 22 You pick me up on the wind and make me ride on it; you toss me about in the storm. 23 I know that you are bringing me to death, to the meeting place for all the living. 24 "Surely one does not stretch out his hand against a broken man when he cries for help in his distress.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Psalms 137:1-4, Ecclesiastes 3:4, Isaiah 21:4, Isaiah 22:12, Isaiah 24:7-9, Lamentations 5:15, Daniel 6:18

Reciprocal: Psalms 150:4 - organs Lamentations 5:14 - the young James 4:9 - let

Cross-References

Genesis 30:4
So Rachel gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob had marital relations with her.
Genesis 30:6
Then Rachel said, "God has vindicated me. He has responded to my prayer and given me a son." That is why she named him Dan.
Psalms 118:8
It is better to take shelter in the Lord than to trust in people.
Hebrews 13:5
Your conduct must be free from the love of money and you must be content with what you have, for he has said, " I will never leave you and I will never abandon you ."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

My harp also is [turned] to mourning,.... Which he used, as David, either in religious worship, expressing praise to God thereby, or for his recreation in an innocent way; but now it was laid aside, and, instead of it, nothing was heard from him, or in his house, but the voice of mourning:

and my organ into the voice of them that weep; another instrument of music, which had its name from the pleasantness of its sound, and was of early use, being first invented by Jubal, Genesis 4:21; but not that we now so call, which is of late invention: those instruments which Job might have and use, both in a civil and in a religious way, were now, through afflictions, become useless to him, and neglected by him; or these expressions in general may signify, that, instead of mirth and joy he was wont to have, there were nothing now to be heard but lamentation and woe; see Lamentations 5:15.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

My harp also is turned to mourning - What formerly gave cheerful sounds, now gives only notes of plaintiveness and lamentation. The harp was probably an instrument originally designed to give sounds of joy. For a description of it, see the notes at Isaiah 5:12.

And my organ - The form of what is here called the organ, is not certainly known. The word עגב ûgâb is doubtless from עגב âgab, “to breathe, to blow”; and most probably the instrument hero intended was the pipe. For a description of it, see the notes at Isaiah 5:12. This instrument, also, was played, as would appear, on joyous occasions, but Job now says that it was turned to grief. All that had been joyous with him had fled. His honor was taken away; his friends were gone; they who had treated him with reverence now stood at a distance, or treated him with contempt; his health was departed, and his former appearance, indicating a station of affluence, was changed for the dark complexion produced by disease, and the instruments of joyousness now gave forth only notes of sorrow.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 30:31. My harp also is turned to mourning — Instead of the harp, my only music is my own plaintive cries.

And my organ — What the עגב uggab was, we know not; it was most probably some sort of pipe or wind instrument. His harp, כנור kinnor, and his pipe, עגב uggab, were equally mute, or only used for mournful ditties.

THIS chapter is full of the most painful and pathetic sorrow; but nevertheless tempered with a calmness and humiliation of spirit, which did not appear in Job's lamentations previously to the time in which he had that remarkable revelation mentioned in the nineteenth chapter. Job 19:25 After he was assured that his Redeemer was the living God, he submitted to his dispensations, kissed the rod, and mourned not without hope, though in deep distress, occasioned by his unremitting sufferings. If the groaning of Job was great, his stroke was certainly heavy.


 
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