Job 30:31
in Job 30My harp is tuned to mourning and my flute to the sound of weeping.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Therefore is my harp turned to mourning, And my pipe into the voice of them that weep.
KJV
My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.
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This verse in Job 30
Commentary
9 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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 עגב ‛ûgâb is doubtless from עגב ‛âgab, “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:
This site's exposition
I have become a brother of jackals
on Job 30:29-31
“I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of ostriches” names creatures of the waste as Job's nearest kin. Gill reads the Hebrew tannim as the jackals of the wilderness. Clarke reads “My skin grows black and peels” as the visible advance of the disease.
This site's exposition
My harp is tuned to mourning
Clarke names the instruments. The harp is the kinnor, and the flute is the uggab, a pipe of some kind. Both once sounded joy, and now the harp is tuned to mourning and the flute to weeping, as at Lamentations 5:15.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
His adversity partly consisted in the exterior signs of sadness, and so he uses images to show how his signs of joy had been changed. These are either musical instruments, and he expresses this alternative saying, "My lyre was turned to mourning," as if to …
My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep. The 'harp' and 'organ' denote the harmonious preaching of Holy Church, whereby in times of peace she sounds forth the joys of the interior life and the praises of the Creator. But when the heat of persecution rises against her, her 'harp is turned to mourning' and her 'organ into the voice of them that weep,' because the sweetness of her preaching is changed into the groaning of lamentation.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
): " My harp is not only laid by, and hung upon the willow-trees, but it is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of those that weep. " Job, in his prosperity, had taken the timbrel and harp, and rejoiced at the sound of the organ, ch. xxi. Notwithstanding his gravity and grace, he had found time to be cheerful; but now his tune was altered.
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My harp also is turned to mourning,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
organ--rather, "pipe" (Job 21:12). "My joy is turned into the voice of weeping" (La 5:15). These instruments are properly appropriated to joy (Isa 30:29, 32), which makes their use now in sorrow the sadder by contrast.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
My harp also is turned to mourning - Instead of the harp, my only music is my own plaintive cries. And my organ - What the עגב uggab was, we know not; it was most probably some sort of pipe or wind instrument. His harp, כנור kinnor, and his pipe, עגב 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.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיְהִ֣י | vayhi | and it has become | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| לְ֭אֵבֶל | leevel | <into> mourning | H60 → | |
| כִּנֹּרִ֑י | kinori | harp my | H3658 → | |
| וְ֝עֻגָבִ֗י | veugavi | and flute my | H5748 → | |
| לְק֣וֹל | lekol | <into> [the] sound of | H6963 → | 506 times |
| בֹּכִֽים׃ | bokhim | weepers | H1058 → | 114 times |
וַיְהִ֣יand it has become
vayhiH1961 →3559 times
לְ֭אֵבֶל<into> mourning
leevelH60 →
כִּנֹּרִ֑יharp my
kinoriH3658 →
וְ֝עֻגָבִ֗יand flute my
veugaviH5748 →
לְק֣וֹל<into> [the] sound of
lekolH6963 →506 times
בֹּכִֽים׃weepers
bokhimH1058 →114 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Ecclesiastes 3:4a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
it leads to
- Romans 12:15
Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.
- Psalms 30:5
For His anger is fleeting, but His favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may stay the night, but joy comes in the morning.
- James 4:9
Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
- Psalms 126:1–2
When the LORD restored the captives of Zion, we were like dreamers.
- John 16:20–22
Truly, truly, I tell you, you will weep and wail while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.
- Romans 12:15
Through
Lamentations 5:15Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.
it leads to
- Amos 8:10
I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Amos 8:10
Through
Isaiah 22:12On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.
it leads to
- Joel 1:13
Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the…
- Micah 1:16
Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair in mourning for your precious children; make yourselves as bald as an eagle, for they will go from you into exile.
- Joel 1:13
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XX; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.