Job 30 · a question people ask
Who are the men Job describes in 30:1-8?
The chapter doesn't name them. Job says that "those who are younger than I have me in derision" (30:1), and of them, "whose fathers I considered unworthy to put with my sheep dogs" (30:1). Then he speaks of them: "They are driven out from among men. They cry after them as after a thief" (30:5), "so that they live in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks" (30:6), and "They are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men. They were flogged out of the land" (30:8). The text doesn't say plainly whether that they means the younger men or their fathers. Then Job goes on, "Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them" (30:9), and "They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don’t hesitate to spit in my face" (30:10). The chapter doesn't say who these men were, what else they did, or why they were driven out, beyond Job's words, and it doesn't say whether the rabble of 30:12 are the same men. These are Job's words, and these notes pass no verdict on the men or on Job.
The verses
““But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I considered unworthy to put with my sheep dogs.”
“They are driven out from among men. They cry after them as after a thief, so that they live in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.”
“They are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men. They were flogged out of the land. “Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them. They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don’t hesitate to spit in my face.”
“On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet. They cast their ways of destruction up against me.”