Job 30 · a question people ask
"You have turned to be cruel to me" (30:21). Was Job right to say that to God?
These are Job's words, and the book doesn't answer them in this chapter. Before the speeches began, the book said, "In all this, Job didn’t sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing" (1:22). In chapter 30 Job says to God, "I cry to you, and you do not answer me" (30:20), and "You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me" (30:21). When the LORD answers Job, he asks, "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" (38:2), and "Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?" (40:8). Job answers, "therefore I have uttered that which I didn’t understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know" (42:3). And the LORD says to Eliphaz, "My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has" (42:7). The book has these verses in different chapters and doesn't say how they fit together, or which words 38:2 and 42:7 have in view. These notes don't decide it either, and they offer no explanation of why Job suffered beyond what the book says.
The verses
“In all this, Job didn’t sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing.”
“I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me. You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me.”
““Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”
“Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?”