Job Chapter 30

“But now [they that are] younger than I have me in derision, etc.] Meaning not his three friends, who were men in years, and were not, at least all of them, younger than he, (see <181510>Job 15:10 32:6,7); nor were they of such a mean extraction, and such low-lived creatures, and of such characters as here described; with such Job would never have held a correspondence in the time of his prosperity; both they and their fathers, in all appearance, were both great and good; but these were a set of profligate and abandoned wretches, who, as soon as Job’s troubles came upon him, derided him, mocked and jeered at him,…”

“(Job 30:1-31) younger--not the three friends (Job 15:10; Job 32:4, Job 32:6-7). A general description: Job 30:1-8, the lowness of the persons who derided him; Job 30:9-15, the derision itself. Formerly old men rose to me (Job 29:8). Now not only my juniors, who are bound to reverence me (Lev 19:32), but even the mean and base-born actually deride me; opposed to, "smiled upon" (Job 29:24). This goes farther than even the "mockery" of Job by relations and friends (Job 12:4; Job 16:10, Job 16:20; Job 17:2, Job 17:6; Job 19:22). Orientals feel keenly any indignity shown by the young. Job speaks as a rich Arabian…”

“But now they that are younger than I - Margin, “of fewer days.” It is not probable that Job here refers to his three friends. It is not possible to determine their age with accuracy, but in Job 15:10, they claim that there were with them old and very aged men, much older than the father of Job. Though that place may possibly refer not to themselves but to those who held the same opinions with them, yet none of those who engaged in the discussion, except Ehhu Job 32:6, are represented as young men. They were the contemporaries of Job; men who are ranked as his friends; and men who showed that they had had…”

“Younger - Whom both universal custom, and the light of nature, taught to reverence their elders and betters. Whose fathers - Whose condition was so mean, that in the opinion, of the world, they were unworthy to be my shepherds the companions of my dogs which watch my flocks. Job 30:3”

“30:2-3 In the past, the most honorable members of society spoke well of Job (29:11); now, the least honorable mocked him (30:1) and spit in his face (30:10). Cp. Pss 35:15; 69:12; Mark 14:65; 15:17-20.”

“they that are: Job 19:13-19, Job 29:8-10; Kg2 2:23; Isa 3:5 younger than I: Heb. of fewer days than I whose: Psa 35:15, Psa 35:16, Psa 69:12; Mar 14:65, Mar 15:17-20; Luk 23:14, Luk 23:18, Luk 23:35, Luk 23:39; Act 17:5; Tit 1:12 Job 30:3”

“1 And now they who are younger than I have me in derision, Those whose fathers I disdained To set with the dogs of my flock. 2 Yea, the strength of their hands, what should it profit me? They have lost vigour and strength. 3 They are benumbed from want and hunger, They who gnaw the steppe, The darkness of the wilderness and waste; 4 They who pluck mallows in the thicket, And the root of the broom is their bread. With ועתּה, which also elsewhere expresses the turning-point from the premises to the conclusion, from accusation to the threat of punishment, and such like, Job here begins to bewail the sad turn which…”