Job 3:24 Commentary and Bible Study

In what he has said in verses 20-23, Job has been speaking of himself, and he now uses the first person to make this clear. He wants all to know how much he is suffering, so that they make some allowance for this outburst of grief. ‘For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like waters.’ The prospect of eating brings him no pleasure, but his torments are continuous. The outpouring of words which his sufferings wring from him – which he calls his roarings – are as plentiful as waters. His deepest darkest fears, which he was hardly able to express, have become a reality. ‘I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.’ Joseph Caryl understands these words to explain the previous verse and expand on it. Before his trials, Job was not guilty of being in a state of carnal security. He was not guilty of presuming that nothing could ever dislodge him from his ease, or that he was at rest on every side and that nothing could come to disturb his peace. He was not resting in the security which his riches brought him, as if they could insulate him from all danger. On the contrary, he was aware of what might trouble him, but he looked to God to keep him from such troubles. Instead however, the Lord had chosen to send into his life the very thing he feared. In spite of his sense of vulnerability and his reliance not on his riches but on the Lord, trouble came flooding into his life.