Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.
Expressing Job's faith as to the state after death. 'Though one must go to the grave, yet He will no more afflict IN THE RUIN of the body (so the Hebrew for grave х bª`iy (H1164)]) there, if one has cried to Him when being destroyed.' 'If, in His destruction х bªpiydow (H6365)] among them х laahen (H3807a)], there is a cry of prayer' х shuwa` (H7769)]. If, in the destruction which God brings upon men, there be prayer offered on their part (Barnes). This accords best with Job's expectation that God would ultimately vindicate him (Job 19:25). [Gesenius takes bª`iy (H1164) from baa`aah (H1158) prayer: 'Yea, prayer is nought when He stretches out His hand (to ruin), and in His (God's) destruction, (namely, which He inflicts) their cry avails nought.'] The 'stretching of His hand' to punish after death answers antithetically to the raising 'the cry' of prayer in the second clause. Maurer gives another translation, which accords with the scope of Job 30:24-31: If it is natural for one in affliction to ask aid, why should it be considered (by the friends) wrong in my case? 'Nevertheless, does not a man in ruin stretch out his hand?' (imploring help, Job 30:20; Lamentations 1:17.) 'If one be in his calamity (destruction), is there not therefore a cry' (for aid)? Thus in the parallelism "cry" answers to "stretch ... hand;" 'in his calamity,' to 'in ruin.' The negative of the first clause is to be supplied in the second, as in Job 30:25 (Job 28:17).