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Job 30 · a question people ask

"For I know that you will bring me to death" (30:23). Is Job asking to die?

In the text

In this verse Job says what he expects, not what he asks for: "For I know that you will bring me to death, to the house appointed for all living" (30:23). Earlier chapters record Job asking God to cut him off (6:8-9) and saying his soul chooses death (7:15-16); this chapter doesn't record him asking for death. What he says here is that he cries and has no answer: "I cry to you, and you do not answer me" (30:20). In the next chapter he asks to be heard: "let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity" (31:6), and "oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!" (31:35). These are Job's words; these notes give no verdict on them.

The verses

“I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me.”
Job 30:20 · World English Bible
“For I know that you will bring me to death, to the house appointed for all living.”
Job 30:23 · World English Bible
““Oh that I might have my request, that God would grant the thing that I long for, even that it would please God to crush me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!”
Job 6:8-9 · World English Bible
“so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones. I loathe my life. I don’t want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.”
Job 7:15-16 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Job 30

Job 30: But now

In Hebrew, Job's "I smiled on them" (29:24) and "those who are younger than I have me in derision" (30:1) are the same verb: the man who smiled on others is now laughed at. And the "harp" and "pipe" that end the chapter in mourning (30:31) are the instruments of Job's words about the wicked: "They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe" (21:12).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions