Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Job 30:5

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Job 30:5. They were driven forth — They were persons whom no one would employ; they were driven away from the city; and if any of them appeared, the hue and cry was immediately raised up against them. The last clause Mr. Good translates, "They slunk away from them like a thief," instead of "They cried after them," &c.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Past glory; present humiliation (29:1-30:31)

Since the three friends have nothing more to say, Job proceeds to show that in the past he had indeed tried to fear God and avoid wrongdoing. So close was his fellowship with God in those days that he could call it friendship (29:1-4). He was blessed with family happiness and prosperity (5-6). He was one of the city elders and was highly respected by the whole community (7-10).
Most rulers were corrupt, favouring the rich and oppressing the poor, but Job’s impartiality and honesty were well known everywhere (11-14). He helped those who were exploited and never feared to give a judgment against the oppressors, no matter how rich or powerful they were (15-17). Job felt that in view of such uprightness he could look forward to a bright future of continued contentment and success (18-20). He would have the same freshness as in former days, when he guided people with his wise advice and cheered them with his warm understanding (21-25).
But instead of the honour and happiness he expected, Job has shame and misery. The lowest of society mock him cruelly (30:1). These worthless people had been driven into the barren wastelands in punishment for their misdeeds, but now they return to make fun of him as he sits in pain and disgrace at the garbage dump (2-8). God allows them to humiliate him without restraint, and he cannot defend himself (9-11). He feels like a city that was once glorious but is now smashed and overrun by the enemy (12-15).
In addition to suffering cruel humiliation, Job has agonizing physical pain. He gets no relief, day or night. As he rolls in agony, his clothes twist around him and become covered in the filth of burnt garbage (16-19). He cries to God, but God only sends him more pain, as if torturing him to death (20-23).
With the desperation of a person sinking into certain ruin, Job cries out for help; but no one gives him the sympathetic assistance that he once gave others (24-26). Depressed in spirit and loathsome in appearance, tortured by pain and rejected by his fellows, he can do nothing but groan (27-31).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

THE KING OF COUNSELORS NOW THE BYWORD OF FOOLS

"But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, Whose fathers I disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. Yea, the strength of their hands, whereto should it profit me? Men in whom ripe ageAlternate reading from the margin is vigor. is perished. They are gaunt with want and famine; They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of wasteness and desolation. They pluck salt-wort by the bushes; And the roots of the broom are their food. They are driven forth from the midst of men; They cry after them as after a thief; So that they dwell in frightful valleys, In holes of the earth and of the rocks. Under the bushes they bray; Under the nettles they are gathered together. They are children of fools, yea, children of base men; They were scourged out of the land. And now I am become their song, Yea, I am a byword unto them."

This section describes the rejected refuse of humanity, the malcontents, the idle, the indolent, the off-scouring of the social order, which some would call the scum of the earth, the point being that even the bottom of the totem pole in their culture considered Job as inferior to themselves; and they derided and mocked him in songs and verbal taunts.

Job has been criticized by some for his low-evaluation of these people; but, in fairness, it should be observed that the evaluation here was not Job's; it was the evaluation and judgment of the whole society in which he lived.

Watson summarized these verses as follows: "These people were gaunt with hunger and vice, herded in the wilderness where alone they were allowed to exist, eating salt-wort and broom-roots for food. The appearance of one of them prompted cries of `thieves and robbers.' They lived in caves, and among the rocks; like wild asses they brayed in the scrub and gathered among the nettles. Base men, children of fools, having dishonored humanity, they had been whipped out of the land. Even these abhorred Job, mocking him in song and byword, even spitting in his face."The Expositor's Bible, Vol. 14, p. 325.

Blair pointed out that, "These people refused to work, and were too proud to beg."Blair, p. 256. This left them the option of stealing and/or scrounging for whatever they might find in the wilderness. In neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament, can there be found any acceptance of people who will not work. In the Decalogue, the word from heaven is, "Six days shalt thou labor." And in the New Testament, the Divine Commandment stands: "He that will not work, don't let him eat"! (2 Thessalonians 3:10).

"Under the bushes they bray" Rawlinson interpreted this to mean that, "The speech of those people sounded to Job more like the braying of asses than articulate speech."The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 7d, p. 485. For reasons which are by no means clear to this writer, Driver and Peake gave the meaning here as, "They bray like donkeys under the influence of lust, and copulate with no better bed than a patch of nettles."International Critical Commentary, Job, p. 253. Pope insisted that, "There is no sexual connotation here, as Peake suggested."The Anchor Bible (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1982), Job, p. 194. This writer is familiar with the behavior of donkeys; and their braying is closely related to hunger, not sex. Rowley was also aware of this connection between hunger and the braying of donkeys.New Century Bible Commentary, Job, p. 192.

"And now I am become their song; yea, I am a byword unto them" This verse belongs both to the preceding verses and to those afterward. "Job continues his lament over his changed condition; but, whereas in the preceding verses he has concentrated on the character of his tormentors, here he begins to dwell upon the effect of their torments upon him."Layman's Bible Commentary, Vol. 8, p. 124.

The eloquent words of Kline catch the spirit of these verses perfectly: "Even the juveniles of this rabble (Job 30:1) regard Job as the fitting butt of their derisive ditties (Job 30:9). No show of contempt is too mean for them (Job 30:10), as with unbridled spite (Job 30:11 b) they devise torments (Job 30:12 ff) against this ruined bourgeois, now a helpless outcast upon their dunghill domain."Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 481.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

They were driven forth from among men - As vagabonds and outcasts. They were regarded as unfit to live among the civilized and the orderly, and were expelled as nuisances.

(They cried after them as after a thief.) - The inhabitants of the place where they lived drove them out with a loud outcry, as if they were thieves and robbers. A class of persons are here described who were mere vagrants and plunderers, and who were not allowed to dwell in civilized society, and it was one of the highest aggravations of the calamities of Job, that he was now treated with derision by such outcasts.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 30

But now, chapter 30, he tells of the present condition. And just as glorious as was the past, so depressing is the present.

But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished? For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste: Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat. They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;) To dwell in the cliffs in the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks ( Job 30:1-6 ).

These people are just the off-scouring of the earth.

Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together. They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth. And now I am their song, yea, I am their byword. [They're looking down on me.] They abhor me, they flee far from me, they spare not to spit in my face ( Job 30:7-10 ).

Spitting, of course, is an insult in the Orient. It's an insult any place to spit in a guy's face, I suppose. But in the Orient it is a sign of great disdain. Many times, walking in Israel, through the old city, you can see hatred in the eyes of some of the Arabs there. And as you go by, they'll spit. Sometimes they'll spit on you. But it is just a sign of utter contempt and disdain. It's about the worst insult that the Oriental can heap upon you, is to spit on you.

We have a friend who went to Okinawa as a missionary and there was a lot of anti-American feeling on Okinawa after the war. And his little boy, who was in first grade, had to go to an all-Oriental school. And every day when his little boy would come home from school, they'd have to bathe him because he was covered with spit all over his body as the children were showing their hatred and disdain of the ugly American. And the dad was so torn up and upset over it he was thinking about just leaving the mission field and his little boy said, "No, Daddy." He said, "I'm doing it for Jesus and it's alright with me." And he said, "I'm just praying that the Lord will help them to know His love and maybe I can show it to them." But he said it was sickening, as the poor little kid would get home from school just covered head to toe. Kids would spit on him.

And so Job speaks of this horrible thing. And, of course, it wasn't just the mouth saliva, it would be the (clears throat)'ing kind. (Sorry about that, honey, I just... facts are facts.) My wife doesn't like me to say things like that, but you know, you might as well know the truth, even though it's ugly.

Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me ( Job 30:11 ),

Talking about God. "Because God has afflicted me."

they have also let loose the bridle before me. Upon my right hand rise the youth ( Job 30:11-12 );

Now here's what these kids were doing. Rotten little kids.

they push away my feet ( Job 30:12 ),

In other words, they trip me as I'm walking along.

and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction. They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper. They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me. Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passes away as a cloud. And now my soul is poured out upon me; and the days of affliction have taken hold upon me. My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest. By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it binds me about as the collar of my coat. He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes. I cry unto thee, and you do not hear me: I stand up, and you don't regard me. You have become cruel to me: with your strong hand you've opposed yourself against me. You lift me up to the wind; and you cause me to ride upon it, and dissolve my substance. For I know that you will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living. Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction. Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor? When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me. I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation. I am a brother to the dragons, a companion to owls. My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat. My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep ( Job 30:12-31 ).

Oh, what a sad, tragic condition this Job was in. From this position of honor, esteem and all, to the bottom. Just absolutely to the bottom.

In chapter 38, light finally comes. So cheer up, we're going to get out of this hole. But oh, how long? Many times we go through bitter experiences that we cannot understand. And while we are in those experiences, it always seems forever. They say that time is relative, and I'm convinced of that. If you're having an extremely pleasurable experience, an hour can go by so quickly. But if you're hurting, an hour seems like eternity. The relativity of time.

Job, going through these experiences, it seemed like forever. Even as sometimes as you are going through trials and testings, it seems like forever. "Oh, God, why?" And if we did not have, as Job, basic foundational truths undergirding us, surely we would fall. So one thing the book of Job really brings out and enforces in our minds is the necessity of the foundational truths being established within our lives: God is good, God is righteous, God loves me. I know that. What I don't know is why, when He loves me, He allows certain things to happen to me. He allows me to experience sorrows, griefs, pain. But I must just be satisfied with the fact that I know He does love me and nothing comes to me but what it isn't filtered through His love. God knows the way that I take and when I am tried, I am going to come out like gold.

Father, we thank you for Your love and for Your goodness. Be patient with us, Father, as we seek to understand that which cannot be understood by us: Your ways, Your purposes, Your dealings. And Lord, may we walk in Your love and may Your Spirit increase our faith. In Jesus' name. Amen. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Job’s present misery ch. 30

"Chapter 29 speaks of what the Lord gave to Job and chapter 30 speaks of what the Lord took away (cf. Job 1:21)." [Note: Zuck, Job, p. 129.]

Job was presently without respect (Job 30:1-15), disregarded (Job 30:16-23), and despondent (Job 30:24-31). He had formerly enjoyed the respect of the most respectable, but now he experienced the contempt of the most contemptible (Job 30:1-15; cf. Job 29:8; cf. Job 29:21-25). [Note: Andersen, p. 235.]

"The lengthy description of these good-for-nothing fathers is a special brand of rhetoric. The modern Western mind prefers understatement, so when Semitic literature indulges in overstatement, such hyperbole becomes a mystery to the average Western reader. To define every facet of their debauchery, to state it in six different ways, is not meant to glory in it but to heighten the pathetic nature of his dishonor." [Note: Smick, "Architectonics, Structured . . .," p. 93.]

God loosed His bowstring against Job (Job 30:11 a) by shooting an arrow at him (i.e., by afflicting him). Job’s enemies cast off the figurative bridle that had previously restrained them in their contacts with him (Job 30:11 b). Job described his soul as poured out within him (Job 30:16) in the sense that he felt drained of all zest for life. [Note: Pope, p. 222.] Job 30:18 probably means he felt that God was grabbing him by the lapels, so to speak, or perhaps that his sickness had discolored, rather than disheveled, his clothing. Job 30:28 evidently refers to Job’s emotional state, whereas Job 30:30 refers to his physical condition, even though the Hebrew words translated "mourning" and "black" are similar in meaning. The Hebrew words translated "comfort" and "fever" are also very close together in meaning. Job’s mental anguish exceeded his physical agony.

"Job is desperately seeking to arouse God’s sympathy for him." [Note: Hartley, p. 400.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

They were driven from among [men],.... From towns and cities, and all civil society, as unfit to be among them; not for any good, it may be observed, but for crimes that they had done, like our felons, and transported persons:

they cried after them as [after] a thief; as they were driven and run along, the people called after them, saying, there goes a thief; which they said by way of abhorrence of them, and for the shame of them, and that all might be warned and cautioned against them; and, generally speaking, such as are idle and slothful, and thereby become miserable, are pilferers and thieves.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.   2 Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished?   3 For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste.   4 Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.   5 They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;)   6 To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.   7 Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.   8 They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.   9 And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.   10 They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.   11 Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me.   12 Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.   13 They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper.   14 They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.

      Here Job makes a very large and sad complaint of the great disgrace he had fallen into, from the height of honour and reputation, which was exceedingly grievous and cutting to such an ingenuous spirit as Job's was. Two things he insists upon as greatly aggravating his affliction:--

      I. The meanness of the persons that affronted him. As it added much to his honour, in the day of his prosperity, that princes and nobles showed him respect and paid a deference to him, so it added no less to his disgrace in his adversity that he was spurned by the footmen, and trampled upon by those that were not only every way his inferiors, but were the meanest and most contemptible of all mankind. None can be represented as more base than those are here represented who insulted Job, upon all accounts. 1. They were young, younger than he (Job 30:1; Job 30:1), the youth (Job 30:12; Job 30:12), who ought to have behaved themselves respectfully towards him for his age and gravity. Even the children, in their play, played upon him, as the children of Bethel upon the prophet, Go up, thou bald-head. Children soon learn to be scornful when they see their parents so. 2. They were of a mean extraction. Their fathers were so very despicable that such a man as Job would have disdained to take them into the lowest service about his house, as that of tending the sheep and attending the shepherds with the dogs of his flock, Job 30:1; Job 30:1. They were so shabby that they were not fit to be seen among his servants, so silly that they were not fit to be employed, and so false that they were not fit to be trusted in the meanest post. Job here speaks of what he might have done, not of what he did: he was not of such a spirit as to set any of the children of men with the dogs of his flock; he knew the dignity of human nature better than to do so. 3. They and their families were the unprofitable burdens of the earth, and good for nothing. Job himself, with all his prudence and patience, could make nothing of them, Job 30:2; Job 30:2. The young were not fit for labour, they were so lazy, and went about their work so awkwardly: Whereto might the strength of their hands profit me? The old were not to be advised with in the smallest matters, for in them was old age indeed, but their old age was perished, they were twice children. 4. They were extremely poor, Job 30:3; Job 30:3. They were ready to starve, for they would not dig, and to beg they were ashamed. Had they been brought to necessity by the providence of God, their neighbours would have sought them out as proper objects of charity and would have relieved them; but, being brought into straits by their own slothfulness and wastefulness, nobody was forward to relieve them. Hence they were forced to flee into the deserts both for shelter and sustenance, and were put to sorry shifts indeed, when they cut up mallows by the bushes, and were glad to eat them, for want of food that was fit for them, Job 30:4; Job 30:4. See what hunger will bring men to: one half of the world does not know how the other half lives; yet those that have abundance ought to think sometimes of those whose fare is very coarse and who are brought to a short allowance of that too. But we must own the righteousness of God, and not think it strange, if slothfulness clothe men with rags and the idle soul be made to suffer hunger. This beggarly world is full of the devil's poor. 5. They were very scandalous wicked people, not only the burdens, but the plagues, of the places where they lived, arrant scoundrels, the scum of the country: They were driven forth from among men,Job 30:5; Job 30:5. They were such lying, thieving, lurking, mischievous people, that the best service the magistrates could do was to rid the country of them, while the very mob cried after them as after a thief. Away with such fellows from the earth; it is not fit they should live. They were lazy and would not work, and therefore they were exclaimed against as thieves, and justly; for those that do not earn their own bread by honest labour do, in effect, steal the bread out of other people's mouths. An idle fellow is a public nuisance; but it is better to drive such into a workhouse than, as here, into a wilderness, which will punish them indeed, but never reform them. They were forced to dwell in caves of the earth, and they brayed like asses among the bushes,Job 30:6; Job 30:7. See what is the lot of those that have the cry of the country, the cry of their own conscience, against them; they cannot but be in a continual terror and confusion. They groan among the trees (so Broughton) and smart among the nettles; they are stung and scratched there, where they hoped to be sheltered and protected. See what miseries wicked people bring themselves to in this world; yet this is nothing to what is in reserve for them in the other world. 8. They had nothing at all in them to recommend them to any man's esteem. They were a vile kind; yea, a kind without fame, people that nobody could give a good word to nor had a good wish for; they were banished from the earth as being viler than the earth. One would not think it possible that ever the human nature should sink so low, and degenerate so far, as it did in these people. When we thank God that we are men we have reason to thank him that we are not such men. But such as these were abusive to Job, (1.) In revenge, because when he was in prosperity and power, like a good magistrate, he put in execution the laws which were in force against vagabonds, and rogues, and sturdy beggars, which these base people now remembered against him. (2.) In triumph over him, because they thought he had now become like one of them. Isaiah 14:10; Isaiah 14:11. The abjects, men of mean spirits, insult over the miserable, Psalms 35:15.

      II. The greatness of the affronts that were given him. It cannot be imagined how abusive they were.

      1. They made ballads on him, with which they made themselves and their companions merry (Job 30:9; Job 30:9): I am their song and their byword. Those have a very base spirit that turn the calamities of their honest neighbours into a jest, and can sport themselves with their griefs.

      2. They shunned him as a loathsome spectacle, abhorred him, fled far from him, (Job 30:10; Job 30:10), as an ugly monster or as one infected. Those that were themselves driven out from among men would have had him driven out. For,

      3. They expressed the greatest scorn and indignation against him. They spat in his face, or were ready to do so; they tripped up his heels, pushed away his feet (Job 30:12; Job 30:12), kicked him, either in wrath, because they hated him, or in sport, to make themselves merry with him, as they did with their companions at foot-ball. The best of saints have sometimes received the worst of injuries and indignities from a spiteful, scornful, wicked world, and must not think it strange; our Master himself was thus abused.

      4. They were very malicious against him, and not only made a jest of him, but made a prey of him--not only affronted him, but set themselves to do him all the real mischief they could devise: They raise up against me the ways of their destruction; or (as some read it), They cast upon me the cause of their woe; that is, "They lay the blame of their being driven out upon me;" and it is common for criminals to hate the judges and laws by which they are punished. But under this pretence, (1.) They accused him falsely, and misrepresented his former conversation, which is here called marring his path. They reflected upon him as a tyrant and an oppressor because he had done justice upon them; and perhaps Job's friends grounded their uncharitable censures of him (Job 22:6-10; Job 22:6-10, c.) upon the unjust and unreasonable clamours of these sorry people and it was an instance of their great weakness and inconsideration, for who can be innocent if the accusations of such persons may be heeded? (2.) They not only triumphed in his calamity, but set it forward, and did all they could to add to his miseries and make them more grievous to him. It is a great sin to forward the calamity of any, especially of good people. In this they have no helper, nobody to set them on or to countenance them in it, nobody to bear them out or to protect them, but they do it of their own accord; they are fools in other things, but wise enough to do mischief, and need no help in inventing that. Some read it thus, They hold my heaviness a profit, though they be never the better. Wicked people, though they get nothing by the calamities of others, yet rejoice in them.

      5. Those that did him all this mischief were numerous, unanimous, and violent (Job 30:14; Job 30:14): They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters, when the dam is broken; or, "They came as soldiers into a broad breach which they have made in the wall of a besieged city, pouring in upon me with the utmost fury;" and in this they took a pride and a pleasure: They rolled themselves in the desolation as a man rolls himself in a soft and easy bed, and they rolled themselves upon him with all the weight of their malice.

      III. All this contempt put upon him was caused by the troubles he was in (Job 30:11; Job 30:11): "Because he has loosed my cord, has taken away the honour and power with which I was girded (Job 12:18; Job 12:18), has scattered what I had got together and untwisted all my affairs--because he has afflicted me, therefore they have let loose the bridle before me," that is, "have given themselves a liberty to say and do what they please against me." Those that by Providence are stripped of their honour may expect to be loaded with contempt by inconsiderate ill-natured people. "Because he hath loosed his cord" (the original has that reading also), that is, "because he has taken off his bridle of restraint from off their malice, they cast away the bridle from me," that is, "they make no account of my authority, nor stand in any awe of me." It is owing to the hold God has of the consciences even of bad men, and the restraints he lays upon them, that we are not continually thus insulted and abused; and, if at any time we meet with such ill treatment, we must acknowledge the hand of God in taking off those restraints, as David did when Shimei cursed him: So let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him. Now in all this, 1. We may see the uncertainty of worldly honour, and particularly of popular applause, how suddenly a man may fail from the height of dignity into the depth of disgrace. What little cause therefore have men to be ambitious or proud of that which may be so easily lost, and what little confidence is to be put in it! Those that to-day cry Hosannah may to-morrow cry Crucify. But there is an honour which comes from God, which if we secure, we shall find it not thus changeable and loseable. 2. We may see that it has often been the lot of very wise and good men to be trampled upon and abused. And, 3. That those who look only at the things that are seen despise those whom the world frowns upon, though they are ever so much the favourites of Heaven. Nothing is more grievous in poverty than that it renders men contemptible. Turba Remi sequitur fortunam, ut semper odit damnatos--The Roman populace, faithful to the turns of fortune, still persecute the fallen. 4. We may see in Job a type of Christ, who was thus made a reproach of men and despised of the people (Psalms 22:6; Psalms 53:3), and who hid not his face from shame and spitting, but bore the indignity better than Job did.