Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 30:5
They were driven forth from among [men], (they cried after them as [after] a thief;)
5 6. Such creatures when they approach civilized dwellings are driven forth and pursued with cries as men do a thief.
They are driven forth from among men,
They cry after them as after a thief,
And they must dwell in the clefts of the valleys, &c.
The word “cliffs” in the ordinary texts here is either a misprint for “clifts” or clefts, or is used in that sense.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Giving one another warning of their danger from them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. they criedthat is, “acry is raised.” Expressing the contempt felt for this race bycivilized and well-born Arabs. When these wild vagabonds make anincursion on villages, they are driven away, as thieves would be.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
5 They are driven forth from society,
They cry after them as after a thief.
6 In the most dismal valleys they must dwell,
In holes of the earth and in rocks.
7 Among the bushes they croak,
Under nettles are they poured forth,
8 Sons of fools, yea sons of base men:
They are driven forth out of the land! –
If, coming forth from their lurking-places, they allow themselves to be seen in the villages of the plain or in the towns, they are driven forth from among men, e medio pelluntur (to use a Ciceronian phrase). (Syr. gau , Arab. gaww , guww ) is that which is internal, here the circle of social life, the organized human community. This expression also is Hebraeo-Arabic; for if one contrasts a house of district with what is outside, he says in Arabic, juwa wa – barra , guwwa wa – berra , within and without, or Arab. ‘l – juwa – n wa – ‘l – brra – n , el – guwwani wa’l – berrani , the inside and the outside. In Job 30:5, , like the thief, is equivalent to, as after the thief, or since this generic Art. is not usual with us Germ. and Engl.: after a thief; French, on crie aprs eux comme aprs le voleur . In Job 30:6, is, according to Ges. 132, rem. 1 (comp. on Hab 1:17), equivalent to , “they are to dwell” = they must dwell; it might also signify, according to the still more frequent usage of the language, habitaturi sunt ; it here, however, signifies habitandum est eis, as , Psa 32:9, obturanda sunt . Instead of with Shurek, the reading with Cholem (after the form , Hos 13:8) is also found, but without support. is either a substantive after the form (Ges., as Kimchi), or the construct of = , feared = fearful, so that the connection of the words, which we prefer, is a superlative one: in horridissima vallium , in the most terrible valleys, as Job 41:22, acutissimae testarum (Ew., according to 313, c). The further description of the habitation of this race of men: in holes ( = ) of the earth ( , earth with respect to its constituent parts) and rocks (lxx ), may seem to indicate the aborigines of the mountains of the district of Seir, who are called , (vid., Genesis, S. 507); but why not, which is equally natural, , Eze 47:16, Eze 47:18, the “district of caverns,” the broad country about Bosra, with the two Trachnes ( ), of which the smaller western, the Leg, is the ancient Trachonitis, and with Ituraea (the mountains of the Druses)?
(Note: Wetzstein also inclines to refer the description to the Ituraeans, who, according to Apuleius, were frugum pauperes , and according to others, freebooters, and are perhaps distinguished from the Arabes Trachonitae (if they were not these themselves), as the troglodytes are from the Arabs who dwell in tents (on the troglodytes in Eastern Hauran, vid., Reisebericht, S. 44, 126). “The troglodyte was very often able to go without nourishment and the necessaries of life. Their habitations are not unfrequently found where no cultivation of the land was possible, e.g., in Safa. They were therefore the rearers of cattle or marauders. The cattle-rearing troglodyte, because he cannot wander about from one pasture to another like the nomads who dwell in tents, often loses his herds by a failure of pasture, heavy falls of snow (which often produce great devastation, e.g., in Hauran), epidemics, etc. Losses may also arise from marauding attacks from the nomads. Still less is this marauding, which is at enmity with all the world, likely to make a race prosperous, which, like the troglodyte, being bound to a fixed habitation, cannot escape the revenge of those whom it has injured.” – Wetzst.)
As Job 6:5 shows, there underlies Job 30:7 a comparison of this people with the wild ass. The , fer, goes about in herds under the guidance of a so-called leader (vid., on Job 39:5), with which the poet in Job 24:5 compares the bands that go forth for forage; here the point of comparison, according to Job 6:5, is their bitter want, which urges from them the cry of pain; for , although not too strong, would nevertheless be an inadequate expression for their sermo barbarus (Pineda), in favour of which Schlottmann calls to mind Herodotus’ (iv. 183) comparison of the language of the Troglodyte Ethiopians with the screech of the night-owl ( ). Among bushes (especially the bushes of the shih, which affords them some nourishment and shade, and a green resting-place) one hears them, and hears from their words, although he cannot understand them more closely, discontent and lamentation over their desperate condition: there, under nettles ( , root , Arab. hrr , as urtica from urere ), i.e., useless weeds of the desert, they are poured forth, i.e., spread about in disorder. Thus most moderns take = , Arab. sfh , comp. , profusus , Amo 6:4, Amo 6:7, although one might also abide by the usual Hebrew meaning of the verb (hardened from ), adjungere, associare (vid., Habak. S. 88), and with Hahn explain: under nettles they are united together, i.e., they huddle together. But neither the fut. nor the Pual (instead of which one would expect the Niph. or Hithpa.) is favourable to the latter interpretation; wherefore we decide in favour of the former, and find sufficient support for a Hebr.-Arabic in the signification effundere from a comparison of Job 14:19 and the present passage. Job 30:8, by dividing the hitherto latent subject, tells what sort of people they are: sons of fools, profane, insane persons (vid., on Psa 14:1); moreover, or of the like kind ( , not ), sons of the nameless, ignobilium or infamium , since is here an adj. which stands in dependence, not filii infamiae = infames (Hirz. and others), by which the second is rendered unlike the first. The assertion Job 30:8 may be taken as an attributive clause: who are driven forth … ; but the shortness of the line and the prominence of the verb are in favour of the independence of the clause like an exclamation in its abrupt and halting form. is Niph. of = ( ), root , to hew, pierce, strike.
(Note: The root Arab. nk is developed in Hebr. , , in Arab. naka’a and naka , first to the idea of outward injury by striking, hewing, etc.; but it is then also transferred to other modes of inflicting injury, and in Arab. nawika , to being injured in mind. The root shows itself in its most sensuous development in the reduplicated form Arab. naknaka , to strike one with repeated blows, fig. for: to press any one hard with claims. According to another phase, the obscene Arab. naka , fut. i, and the decent Arab. nakaha , signify properly to pierce. – Fl.)
On , of arable land in opposition to the steppe, vid., on Job 18:17.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
5. Driven forth from among men If they dared to show themselves among men they were hooted back to their own bestial homes.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 30:5 They were driven forth from among [men], (they cried after them as [after] a thief;)
Ver. 5. They were driven forth from among men ] E corpore, saith Tremellius, out of the body; that is, out of the community, as not fit to live in a commonwealth. The Jews are, for their inexpiable guilt, banished out of the world, as it were, by a common consent of nations. Out of England they were exiled for ever by King Edward I, A.D. 1290; out of France, 1307; out of Spain, 1492; Portugal, 1597; Naples and Sicily, 1539. In Turkey they pay for the very heads they wear; but in Cyprus, if a Jew be taken (though driven thither by tempest), he is put to death immediately. Country they have none, nor resting place anywhere. In Jerusalem they are not to be found, at this time, a hundred households of them; indeed, in Constantinople and Thessalonica there are esteemed to be about 160,000 Jews; who yet are exceedingly condemned and hated there (Breerwood’s Inquiries); and at every Easter in danger of being stoned by the Christians, because at that time they crucified our Saviour, derided, and buffeted him (Biddulph). All this, and more, they suffer; and yet they continue, by a just judgment of God upon them, woefully hard hearted, blood thirsty, thievish, treacherous, flagitious. Howbeit there is a remnant according to the election of grace, Rom 11:5 . A.D. 1556, at Weissensten, in Germany, a Jew, for theft (they had cried after him with hue and cry, as after a thief), was in this cruel manner to be executed: he was hanged by the feet, with his head downward, between two dogs, which constantly snatched and bit at him. The strangeness of the torment moved Jacob Andreas, a grave divine, to go to behold it; coming thither, he found the poor wretch, as he hung, repeating verses out of the Hebrew psalms, wherein he cried out to God for mercy. Andreas hereupon took occasion to counsel him to trust in Jesus Christ, the true Saviour of mankind. The Jew, embracing the Christian faith, requested but this one thing, that he might be taken down, and be baptized, though presently after he were hanged again (but by the neck, as Christian malefactors suffered), which was accordingly granted him (Melch. Adam in Vit.).
They cried after them as after a thief
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
driven: Gen 4:12-14, Psa 109:10, Dan 4:25, Dan 4:32, Dan 4:33
Reciprocal: Exo 22:2 – breaking Isa 2:10 – Enter
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 30:5-6. They were driven forth from among men As unworthy of human society; and for their beggary and dishonesty, suspected and avoided of all men; they cried after them as after a thief Giving one another warning of their danger from them.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
30:5 They were {d} driven forth from among [men],
(they cried after them as [after] a thief;)
(d) Job shows that those who mocked him in his affliction were like their fathers, wicked and lewd fellows, such as he here describes.