“When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.”
But when I looked for good, then evil came; and when I waited for light, then darkness came, expressing the perverse inversion of expectation—Job waited for positive outcomes and received negative ones, suggesting the cosmos operates contrary to moral expectation. The looking for good met with evil suggests that Job's anticipation was violated. The waiting for light met with darkness suggests that hope itself was inverted. The verse portrays reality as governed by a logic opposed to justice.
Church Fathers on Job 30:26
When I looked for good, then evil came unto me; and when I waited for light, there broke forth darkness. For the faithful people ‘looks for good,’ but receives evil, and it ‘waits for light,’ and meets with ‘darkness,’ because by the grace of the recompensing it hopes to be now already admitted to the joys of the Angels, and yet being delayed for a longer time here below, it is exposed to the hands of those that persecute it; and he who calculates to enjoy as quickly as…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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