Job Chapter 30 verse 24 Holy Bible
Howbeit doth not one stretch out the hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
read chapter 30 in ASV
Has not my hand been stretched out in help to the poor? have I not been a saviour to him in his trouble?
read chapter 30 in BBE
Indeed, no prayer [availeth] when he stretcheth out [his] hand: though they cry when he destroyeth.
read chapter 30 in DARBY
Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.
read chapter 30 in KJV
Yet he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.
read chapter 30 in WBT
"However doesn't one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?
read chapter 30 in WEB
Surely not against the heap Doth He send forth the hand, Though in its ruin they have safety.
read chapter 30 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 24. - Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction. This is one of the most obscure passages in the entire Book of Job, and scarcely any two independent commentators understand it alike. To give all the different renderings, and discuss them, would be an almost endless task, and one over-wearisome to the reader. It will, per-Imps, suffice to select the one which to the present writer appears the most satisfactory. This is the rendering of Professor Stanley Leathes, who suggests the following: "Howbeit God will not put forth his hand to bring a man to death and the grave, when there is earnest prayer for them, not even when he himself hath caused the calamity." The same writer further explains the passage as follows: "I know that thou wilt dissolve and destroy me, and bring me to the grave (ver. 23), though thou wilt not do so when I pray to thee to release me by death from my sufferings. Thou wilt surely do so [some time or other], but not in my time, or according to my will, but only in thine own appointed time, and as thou seest fit."
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(24) Though they cry in his destruction.--This is a very obscure verse. Some render it, "Surely against a ruinous heap he will not put forth his hand; though it be in his destruction one may utter a cry because of these things." Others, understanding the word rendered "ruinous heap" otherwise, render "Howbeit, God will not put forth His hand to bring man to death and the grave when there is earnest prayer for them, nor even when in calamity proceeding from Him there is a loud cry for them:" that is to say, "I know that Thou wilt dissolve and destroy me, and bring me to the grave, though Thou wilt not do so when I pray unto Thee to release me by death from my sufferings. Thou wilt surely do so, but not in my time or according to my will, but only in Thine own appointed time, and as Thou seest fit." This is one of those passages that may be regarded as hopelessly uncertain. Each reader will make the best sense he can of it, according to his judgment. That Job should speak of himself as a ruinous heap seems very strange; neither is it at all clear what "these things" are because of which a cry is uttered. Certainly the significance given by the other rendering is much greater. "His destruction" must mean, at all events, the destruction that cometh from Him; and if this is so, the sense given is virtually that of the Authorised Version.
