Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 30:31
My harp also is [turned] to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.
31. The joyous music of his former life is turned into wailing. The “organ” is the pipe, ch. Job 21:12; comp. Lam 5:15.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
My harp also is turned to mourning – What formerly gave cheerful sounds, now gives only notes of plaintiveness and lamentation. The harp was probably an instrument originally designed to give sounds of joy. For a description of it, see the notes at Isa 5:12.
And my organ – The form of what is here called the organ, is not certainly known. The word ugab is doubtless from agab, to breathe, to blow; and most probably the instrument hero intended was the pipe. For a description of it, see the notes at Isa 5:12. This instrument, also, was played, as would appear, on joyous occasions, but Job now says that it was turned to grief. All that had been joyous with him had fled. His honor was taken away; his friends were gone; they who had treated him with reverence now stood at a distance, or treated him with contempt; his health was departed, and his former appearance, indicating a station of affluence, was changed for the dark complexion produced by disease, and the instruments of joyousness now gave forth only notes of sorrow.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 31. My harp also is turned to mourning] Instead of the harp, my only music is my own plaintive cries.
And my organ] What the uggab was, we know not; it was most probably some sort of pipe or wind instrument. His harp, kinnor, and his pipe, uggab, were equally mute, or only used for mournful ditties.
THIS chapter is full of the most painful and pathetic sorrow; but nevertheless tempered with a calmness and humiliation of spirit, which did not appear in Job’s lamentations previously to the time in which he had that remarkable revelation mentioned in the nineteenth chapter. Job 19:25 After he was assured that his Redeemer was the living God, he submitted to his dispensations, kissed the rod, and mourned not without hope, though in deep distress, occasioned by his unremitting sufferings. If the groaning of Job was great, his stroke was certainly heavy.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Either,
1. I have now nothing but bitter lamentations instead of my former expressions of joy. Or,
2. Those very things which formerly were occasions and instruments of my delight, do now renew and aggravate my sorrows.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
31. organrather, “pipe”(Job 21:12). “My joy isturned into the voice of weeping” (La5:15). These instruments are properly appropriated to joy(Isa 30:29; Isa 30:32),which makes their use now in sorrow the sadder by contrast.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
My harp also is [turned] to mourning,…. Which he used, as David, either in religious worship, expressing praise to God thereby, or for his recreation in an innocent way; but now it was laid aside, and, instead of it, nothing was heard from him, or in his house, but the voice of mourning:
and my organ into the voice of them that weep; another instrument of music, which had its name from the pleasantness of its sound, and was of early use, being first invented by Jubal, Ge 4:21; but not that we now so call, which is of late invention: those instruments which Job might have and use, both in a civil and in a religious way, were now, through afflictions, become useless to him, and neglected by him; or these expressions in general may signify, that, instead of mirth and joy he was wont to have, there were nothing now to be heard but lamentation and woe; see La 5:15.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(31) My harp also is turned to mourning.Or, Therefore is my harp turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of them that weep. The musical instruments here named, like those of Gen. 4:21, are respectively the stringed and wind instruments.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
31. Harp to mourning See note, Job 21:12. Among the Hindus, when a person is in trouble, his instrument is also considered to be in trouble, (Roberts.)
Thus closes the second part of the soliloquy, (monologue,) Job’s last sorrowful lament. “What a delicate touch of the poet is it that he makes this lament die away so melodiously! One hears the prolonged vibration of its elegiac strains. The festive and joyous music is hushed; the only tones are tones of sadness and lament, mesto flebile.” Delitzsch.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
REFLECTIONS
MY soul, behold in the sufferings of Job, what is, and deservedly ought to be, the lot of human nature. Born in sin, and therefore born to sorrow. And shall a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Job stands forth, in this instance, a living monument of what our nature, universally speaking, is exposed to. And but for the interposition of grace, in the mercy and love of GOD our FATHER, in giving his dear Son, and the Son of GOD in coming, and the HOLY SPIRIT in bringing poor sinners acquainted with this rich salvation, all the temporal distresses of Job, aggravated by everlasting sorrows to have followed, would have been our portion forever. Oh! what shall we render to GOD for his mercies! Thanks, thanks be unto GOD for his unspeakable gift!
But my soul, while contemplating the sorrows of Job, and the gracious interposition of heaven to soften and remove them, wilt thou not again and again look at JESUS; while reading Job’s misery, and, in so lively a type of thy suffering Redeemer, feel all thy tender and affectionate powers going forth in love, and praise, and attachment, and obedience to thy blessed and adored Saviour? Did JESUS, in the days of his flesh, endure the contradiction of sinners against himself, that his people might not be weary, and faint in mind? Oh! thou LAMB of GOD! how didst thou, in thy debased and low estate, submit to all indignities, griefs, sorrows, wounds, bruises! Who shall describe the dreadful pangs, and agonies like those of a travailing woman when bringing forth, in the garden and on the cross, the delivery of thy people from everlasting slavery and eternal death. Oh, precious GOD! thou shalt see the travail of thy soul, for so the FATHER promised, and be satisfied. Thou shalt justify many. The dew of thy birth shall be as the womb of the morning. And now, blessed Redeemer, having by thy death delivered thy redeemed from death, and by rising to life again having begotten them to everlasting life: now thou rememberest no more the anguish of thy travailing pains in redemption work, for joy that thy children are born into the world of grace, and shall hereafter be with thee in glory. Amen.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 30:31 My harp also is [turned] to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.
Ver. 31. My harp also is turned to mourning ] All the days of the afflicted are evil, Pro 15:15 , his harps are hanged up, his lute no longer fit but for melancholy airs; his song nothing but lachrymae, doleful ditties; his organs, all those instruments that were wont to divert him, are condemned either to sigh or to be silent. Intempestiva est in luctu Musica /RAPC Sir 22:6, (Sophocl.). Gillimer, overcome and besieged by Belisarius, sent to request of him three things: 1. A loaf, to ease his hunger. 2. A harp, to ease his grief. 3. A sponge, to dry up his tears. Such mournful music was Job’s, if any at all.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 137:1-4, Ecc 3:4, Isa 21:4, Isa 22:12, Isa 24:7-9, Lam 5:15, Dan 6:18
Reciprocal: Psa 150:4 – organs Lam 5:14 – the young Jam 4:9 – let