Job 30:10

Job 30:10 They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.

Ver. 10. They abhor me, they flee far from me] As if I were a leper or a bugbear, or that my breath were infectious; like that maid spoken of by Avicen, who, feeding upon poison, was herself healthy, yet infected others with her venomous breath. Job was wont to be honoured; now he is as much abhorred. People were used to hanging upon his lips for learned counsel, but they stand aloof, and keep at a distance. They looked upon that face of his as the face of an angel, which now, with utmost despite and detestation, they spit upon and spare not. At virtutes evertere non possunt, as Demetrius Phalereus said, when the Athenians threw down the many statues they had once erected in honour of him, But they cannot throw down my virtues and valiant acts, whereby I deserved those statues. Job was not without his cordial in this sad and sudden change of his condition. For, first, the bird in his own bosom sang sweetly still, as birds in the spring tune most melodiously when it rains most sadly. And, secondly, what if these miscreants prate against Job with malicious words, as Diotrephes did against Demetrius, 3Jn 1:9-13, yet it is enough for Job or Demetrius that they have a good report of all men; that is, of all good men, who indeed are the only men (because a good name only is a name, Ecc 7:1, and a good wife only a wife, Pro 18:22) to be reckoned on; and of the truth itself, that is more, Job 30:12.

And spare not to spit in my face] In signum videlicet maximi contemptus et indignationis (Junius), In token of greatest contempt and indignation, as Num 12:14 Isa 50:6 Deu 25:9. The face is the table of beauty or comeliness; and when it is spit upon it is made the seat of shame. Their words were, likely, such as the English barons here said of the popes that excommunicated them, Fie on such rascal ribalds, &c., Marcidi ribauldi (Mat. Paris,). Our Lord Christ also was spit upon in like manner, that he might cleanse our faces from the filth of sin, and make them shine with his beams, 1Jn 3:2.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

30:10 won’t come near me: See also 19:13-15; cp. Ps 88:8; Prov 19:7; Matt 26:56. • To spit in someone’s face was to display revulsion or contempt (Deut 25:9; Isa 50:6; Matt 26:67; 27:30; Mark 14:65).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

in my face--rather, refrain not to spit in deliberate contempt before my face. To spit at all in presence of another is thought in the East insulting, much more so when done to mark "abhorrence." Compare the further insult to Jesus Christ (Isa 50:6; Mat 26:67).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 10. They abhor me] What a state must civil society be in when such indignities were permitted to be offered to the aged and afflicted!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

They abhor me,.... As it is no wonder they should, since his inward and most intimate friends did, Job 19:19; they abhorred him, not for any evil in him; Job was ready enough to abhor that himself, and himself for it, as he did when sensible of it, Job 42:6; but for the good that was in him, spoken or done by him; which carried in it a reproof to them they could not bear; see Amo 5:10; they abhorred him also because of his present meanness and poverty, and because of his afflictions and distresses; and particularly the diseases of his body; so Christ was abhorred by the Scribes, Pharisees and elders of the people, the three shepherds his soul loathed, and their soul abhorred him for his meanness and for his ministry: and even by the whole nation of the Jews, by the body of the people, particularly when they preferred Barabbas, a thief and a murderer, to him, Mar 15:7; see Zac 11:8;

they flee from me; as from some hideous monster, or infectious person, as if he had the plague on him, or some nauseous disease, the stench of which they could not bear; so Christ his antitype was used by: his people; when they saw him in his afflictions they hid their faces from him, did not care to look at him, or come nigh him, Isa 53:3;

and spare not to spit in my face; not in his presence only, as some think, which is too low a sense, but literally and properly in his face, when they vouchsafed to come near him; in this opprobrious way they used him, than which nothing was a greater indignity and affront; and we need not scruple to interpret it in this sense of Job, since our Lord, whose type he was in this and other things, was so treated, Isa 50:6.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

They abhor me - Hebrew, They regard me as abominable.

They flee far from me - Even such an impious and low born race now will have nothing to do with me. They would consider it no honor to be associated with me, but keep as far from me as possible.

And spare not to spit in my face - Margin, “withhold not spittle from.” Noyes renders this “Before my face;” and so Luther Wemyss, Umbreit, and Prof. Lee. The Hebrew may mean either to spit in the face, or to spit “in the presence” of anyone. It is quite immaterial which interpretation is adopted, since in the view of Orientals the one was considered about the same as the other. In their notions of courtesy and urbanity, he commits an insult of the same kind who spits in the presence of another which he would if he spit on him. Are they not right? Should it not be so considered every where? Yet how different their views from the more refined notions of the civilized Occidentals! In America, more than in any other land, are offences of this kind frequent and gross. Of nothing do foreigners complain of us more, or with more justice; and much as we boast of our intelligence and refinement, we should gain much if in this respect we would sit down at the feet of a Bedouin Arab, and incorporate his views into our maxims of politeness.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Face. This most people explain literally; while some, (Calmet) as Job was herein a figure of Christ, (Menochius; Matthew xxvi.; Worthington) think that the expression denotes the utmost contempt; (St. Gregory, &c.) or that the people spit upon the ground (Calmet) for fear of contracting any infection; (Haydock) and because lepers were held in the utmost abhorrence. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

They flee far from me, in contempt of my person, and loathing of my sores.

Spare not to spit in my face; not literally, for they kept far from him, as he now said; but figuratively, i.e. they use all manner of contemptuous and reproachful expressions and carriages towards me, not only behind my back, but even to my face.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10. Spit in my face — Num_12:14; Deu_25:9; see also Job_17:6. Some improperly understand the grossly insulting act in this case to have been before, not into, the face. In the East, however, spitting in the presence of another is regarded as an outrage nearly as great as to spit upon him.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They abhor me, they flee far from me; rather, they abhor me, they stoat aloof from me (see the Revised Version). And spare not to spit in my face. This has generally been taken literally, as it seems to have been by the LXX But it, perhaps, means no more than that they did not refrain from spitting in Job"s presence (see Professor Lee"s "Book of Job," p. 422).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Spit - Not literally, for they kept far from him, but figuratively, they use all manner of reproachful expressions, even to my face. Herein, also we see a type of Christ, who was thus made a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.