Глава 30

Job's second speech to his friends. 1–11. Description of the current state - contempt on the part of the most insignificant people. 12–28. Illnesses. 29–31. Sadness. Job 30:1. And now those younger than me are laughing at me, those whose fathers I would not have agreed to place with the dogs of my flocks. Job 30:2. And what is the strength of their hands to me? Time has already passed over them. Job's present situation is in complete contrast to the happy, glorious past. Previously revered by the elders and the nobles (Job 29.3–10), he is now subject to ridicule from the younger ones and, moreover, from the scum of the population. “I would not agree to place their fathers with the dogs of my flocks” - with some of the most despised animals in the east (1 Kings 17.43; 2 Kings 8.13; Eccl. 9.4). Job 30:3. Exhausted by poverty and hunger, they flee into the waterless, gloomy and deserted steppe; Job 30:4. they pluck the greenery near the bushes, and juniper berries are their bread. Job 30:5. They are expelled from society, they are shouted at as thieves, Job 30:6. so that they would live in the ruts of the streams, in the gorges of the earth and rocks. Job 30:7. They roar between the bushes, huddle under the thorns. Job 30:8. Outcast people, people without a name, the scum of the earth! Job is mocked by people who, by their way of life, do not even deserve the name of people. Inhabitants of deserts, exhausted by hunger, they feed, like animals, on quinoa (Hebrew maluach, Greek αλιμα; Russian “greens near the bushes”; cf. Athenaeus’ remarks about the poor Pythagoreans: “αλιμα ψώγοντες καὶ κακὰ τοιαυτα συλλέγοντες"), and bitter gorse roots. Rejected by society, expelled from it (v. 5), they do not have human dwellings, live like animals in the depressions of the soil (“potholes of streams”), rock gorges (cf. Job 24.5–6) and express their needs in a purely animal way - “roar” (cf. Job 6.5). Job 30:9. I have now become their song and the food of their conversation. Job 30:10. They abhor me, move away from me and do not refrain from spitting in my face. Among this “rabbit of the earth” (v. 8) Job became the subject of mocking songs (Heb. “neginates” cf. Ps 68.13; Lamentations 3.14). With a feeling of disgust (cf. Job 19.19) they run away from the sufferer and if they come to him, only to express their contempt by spitting (cf. Job 17.6). Job 30:11. Since He untied my reins and struck me, they threw off the bridle before me. The reason for this attitude lies in the suffering of Job. God “untied my reins”, more precisely, “the rope” (Heb. “itri”), - vital force (cf. Jer 10.20; Eccl. 12.6), took away vigor, strength of strength. And people, seeing the plight of the sufferer, do not have the slightest restraint in mocking ("throwing off... the bridle") at the address of the one who previously enjoyed respect (cf. Job 12.5). The LXX translation, Slavic, Vulgate and some of the newest exegetes (Ewald), reading instead of “itri” “itro” - “his quiver,” translate the entire passage as follows: “God opened his quiver,” i.e., he struck Job with the arrows of His wrath (cf. Job 6.4, 16.13). But even with such a translation, the meaning of this verse does not change: illness and suffering took away Job’s strength of strength. Job 30:12. This fiend gets up from the right side, knocks me off my feet, and directs its disastrous paths towards me. Job 30:13. But they ruined my path: they managed to do everything to my destruction, without having an assistant. Job 30:14. They came to me as if through a wide gap; They rushed at me noisily. The subject of these verses is not the persons described above, but the illnesses that befell Job. The justice of this is guaranteed by the description of suffering identical to the real ones in Job 16.9, 12–14. Having spoken about the latter in Art. 11, as the reason for the mockery, Job now moves on to describe them. Indicators of divine wrath, accusers of Job’s sins (Job 10.15, 17, 16.8) and therefore are called those standing on the right side (cf. Ps 108.6; Zech 3.1), with their multitude (“fiend”, more precisely, “crowd”) they are distinguished by such extraordinary strength (“knocked down”) that alone, without outside help, they can destroy Job (p. 13). And nothing prevents them from doing this: they rush towards Job, like soldiers against a besieged city, after a wide breach has been made in its walls (cf. Job 16.14). - “They rushed at me with a noise”, more precisely: “among the rubble (collapsing walls) they are overthrown.” Job 30:15. Horrors rushed towards me; like the wind, my greatness dissipated, and my happiness was carried away like a cloud. Although the disease has not yet destroyed Job, its results are obvious. He is in fear of approaching death (“terrors rushed”; cf. Job 18.14, 27.20); depending on the disasters, the former greatness and happiness disappeared (vv. 1, 11) without a trace, like the wind and the cloud (cf. Job 7.9; Isaiah 44.22). Job 30:16. And now my soul is poured out within me: days of sorrow have taken hold of me. Further, under the influence of suffering, Job’s soul is full of grief and sadness: “my soul is poured out” (cf. Ps 41.4–6; Lamentations 2.19), and there is no hope for the easing of grief; she hugged him and held him tightly. Job 30:17. At night my bones ache within me, and my veins have no rest. Even the night does not bring peace (cf. Job 7.3, 9): “the night drills into my bones” and the “gnawers” ​​(Heb. “orkai”; cf. v. 3; Russian “veins”), i.e. worms (cf. Job 7.5), do not fall asleep - they do not give rest. Job 30:18. With great difficulty my clothes are taken off; the edges of my tunic are pinching me. The Synodal reading represents an inaccurate translation of the original text. Its literal translation is as follows: “by the omnipotence (presumably of God) my clothes are disfigured; He presses me like the collar of my tunic.” Since the Heb. “lebushi” (“my clothes”) is used in the meaning of “skin” (Job 41.5), then Job wants to say that his skin, ulcerated by worms (v. 17) and disease in general, took on an ugly appearance. Job 30:19. He threw me into the mud, and I became like dust and ashes. Painted red at the beginning of the disease, it has now become black and scaly, taking on the appearance of an earthy, dirty-colored scab (Delitzsch). Job 30:20. I cry to You, and You do not listen to me - I stand, and You just look at me. Job 30:21. You have become cruel to me, you are at enmity against me with a strong hand. Job 30:22. You have lifted me up and made me fly in the wind and crush me. Job 30:23. Thus, I know that You will bring me to death and to the house of meeting of all living. God's current cruel attitude towards Job makes it impossible for him to hope for an improvement in his situation in the future (cf. Job 7.5–10). Indifferent and indifferent to Job’s prayer (v. 20; cf. Job 19.7; cf. Job 22.27), God still makes him feel the full force of his power (v. 21; cf. Job 10.16, 16.9, 19.11); by the disasters that befell him, he was caught as by a strong wind, thrown to the ground and crushed (v. 22). The natural consequence of all this, the final act of hostility, will be death - the descent into Sheol - “the house of meeting of all living” (v. 23, cf. Job 3.18 etc.). Job 30:24. Surely He will not stretch out His hand upon the house of bones: will they cry out at their destruction? With the death of Job, of course, violence on the part of God will end (“he will not stretch out His hand”; cf. Job 2.5, 23.2), and the bones turning into dust (“at their destruction”) will not declare oppression. But what is the use of this when everyone in Sheol is already calm (Job 3.17)? This is the meaning of the synodal reading, which does not convey the thoughts of the original. According to Delitzsch and other exegetes, it should be translated as follows: “does not he who is perishing stretch out his hands? Doesn't he who is in misfortune cry out? Job is confident in the inevitability of death (v. 23) and yet cannot help but beg for mercy. His cries are a manifestation of man’s ineradicable sense of self-preservation. Job 30:25. Did I not cry for someone who was in grief? did not my soul grieve for the poor? Job 30:26. When I expected good, evil came; when I expected light, darkness came. And on the other hand, they are a protest of truth against obvious injustice. Based on his previous behavior, sympathy and compassion for the unfortunate (v. 25; cf. Job 29.12 and Job 31.19–20), Job deserves not enmity and punishment by death, but pardon and preservation of life (cf. Ps 40.2–4). And yet his lot is nothing but disasters. Job 30:27. My insides are boiling and won't stop; I was greeted by days of sadness. Under the influence of this obvious injustice, Job comes into a state of extreme excitement (“my insides are boiling”; cf. Isa 16.11; Jer 31.20; Lamentations 1.20, 2.11), falls into deep sadness. Job 30:28. I walk around blackened, but not from the sun; I stand up in the meeting and shout. He walks “blackened,” Heb. "coder" - mournful, with a bowed head (Ps 34.14, 37.7, 41.10, 42.2) "without the sun", without hope for any improvement in his lot, and loudly declares his grief before those who have gathered to him for consolation. Job 30:29. I became a brother to the jackals and a friend to the ostriches. These statements are in the nature of complaints, and in them Job was likened to jackals, emitting a howl full of horror during the night, and ostriches, whose whistling-like cry is replaced by plaintive moans (cf. Micah 1.8). Job 30:30. My skin turned black on me, and my bones burned with heat. Job 30:31. And my zither became sad, and my pipe became mournful. For Job there are no joys: cheerful music (cf. Job 21.22) turned into sorrowful lamentation (cf. Ps. 29.12; Lamentations 5.15; Am 8.10). You might be interested in: