Job 30:24 "Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man when he cries for help in his distress.

◄ Job 30:24 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
"Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man when he cries for help in his distress.

English Standard Version
“Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster cry for help?

New American Standard Bible
"Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, Or in his disaster therefore cry out for help?

King James Bible
Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Yet no one would stretch out his hand against a ruined man when he cries out to him for help because of his distress.

International Standard Version
"Surely he won't stretch his hand against the needy, will he, especially if they cry to him in their calamity?

American Standard Version
Howbeit doth not one stretch out the hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?

Douay-Rheims Bible
But yet thou stretchest not forth thy hand to their consumption: and if they shall fall down thou wilt save.

Darby Bible Translation
Indeed, no prayer availeth when he stretcheth out his hand: though they cry when he destroyeth.

Young's Literal Translation
Surely not against the heap Doth He send forth the hand, Though in its ruin they have safety.

Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

30:15-31 Job complains a great deal. Harbouring hard thoughts of God was the sin which did, at this time, most easily beset Job. When inward temptations join with outward calamities, the soul is hurried as in a tempest, and is filled with confusion. But woe be to those who really have God for an enemy! Compared with the awful state of ungodly men, what are all outward, or even inward temporal afflictions? There is something with which Job comforts himself, yet it is but a little. He foresees that death will be the end of all his troubles. God's wrath might bring him to death; but his soul would be safe and happy in the world of spirits. If none pity us, yet our God, who corrects, pities us, even as a father pitieth his own children. And let us look more to the things of eternity: then the believer will cease from mourning, and joyfully praise redeeming love.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

24. Expressing Job's faith as to the state after death. Though one must go to the grave, yet He will no more afflict in the ruin of the body (so Hebrew for "grave") there, if one has cried to Him when being destroyed. The "stretching of His hand" to punish after death answers antithetically to the raising "the cry" of prayer in the second clause. Maurer gives another translation which accords with the scope of Job 30:24-31; if it be natural for one in affliction to ask aid, why should it be considered (by the friends) wrong in my case? "Nevertheless does not a man in ruin stretch out his hand" (imploring help, Job 30:20; La 1:17)? If one be in his calamity (destruction) is there not therefore a "cry" (for aid)? Thus in the parallelism "cry" answers to "stretch—hand"; "in his calamity," to "in ruin." The negative of the first clause is to be supplied in the second, as in Job 30:25 (Job 28:17).