Job 30:12 Commentary and Bible Study

He tells us how the children of worthless men behave. The first picture he uses is of a city under siege with battering engines raised against the walls. Possibly it is a description of how they are stealing his lands, but more likely it is a graphic description of how assault him with words. Job is very concerned about what others are doing to him and feels every pang. We must avoid our minds dredging up every possible problem, rather than seeking help from the Lord. From every place that Job would expect support, comes trouble. The word ‘youth’ is a derisive word which others translate ‘rabble’ or ‘brood’ (used only here in Scripture) and refers to the children of those worthless individuals. These came in large numbers not afraid to mock him to his face and even to assault him physically. They came like an army besieging a city and remaining in place till it falls, rejoicing when it has no further strength to resist. Using another picture, he says that these destroyers break up his path, so that it is impossible for him to pass. They do this because they are eager to give calamity a helping hand. In the past Job would not have been concerned about this because no one would have taken seriously what was said against him, and because he had the resources to deliver himself from trouble, but now he is exposed to their cruelties.The last words of verse 13 are translated in various ways. Some treat the words as spoken to Job, He has no helper; the literal translation is, ‘No help to him (singular).’ But others understand Job to say that these persecutors need no help, for the implied reason that they Job is so weakened. Though they were no threat to Job in former times, now they come towards him like a devastating army or like a flood going through a breach in a wall, widening it and washing all away before it. They are like an unstoppable force that rolls on and brings ruin in its wake. In his vulnerable state Job feels the threat of these nobodies.