Job 30:8

Job 30:8 [They were] children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.

Ver. 8. They were children of fools, yea, children of base men] Homines flagitiosissimi, etiam homines ignominiosissimi afflictissimi erant, extorres, so Tremellius translateth; Naught all over they were, and nought esteemed; what wonder, therefore, if heavily afflicted and relegated? Their poverty was self-procured, and, therefore, unpitied; they had brought themselves into the briars, and also in their fathers’ iniquities they were pining away with them, Lev 26:39. Evil eggs they were of evil birds, nihili homunciones et inglorii, as the Tigurines translate, fellows of no fashion, and as little account, terrae filii, earth sprung mushrooms, men in whom all true wisdom was faded and decayed, sapless persons, Nabals, Nebulones.

They were viler than the earth] Terra quam ferimus, terra etiam quam terimus; or, They were smitten out of the earth, driven out of the land, sc. by me when I was in power; but now these vile varlets show themselves again, and trample upon me with the feet of pride and petulancy, Leoni mortuo vel mus insultat.

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.

Job 30:8-10. They were children of fools, &c. — They were children of base, obscure parents; viler than the earth upon which they trod. Houbigant translates the verse: Foolish men and inglorious, they were driven out of the country in which they lived. And now am I their song — The matter of their song and derision. They now rejoice in my calamities, because I formerly used my authority to punish such vagrants. They flee far from me — In contempt of my person, and loathing of my sores; and spare not to spit in my face — Not literally, for they kept far from him, as he now said, but figuratively; that is, they use all manner of contemptuous and reproachful expressions toward me, not only behind my back, but even to my face. Houbigant reads, They abominate me; they hold me in the utmost abhorrence; and fear not to spit in my face. Here we may see in Job a type of Christ, who was thus made a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

fools--that is, the impious and abandoned (Sa1 25:25).

base--nameless, low-born rabble.

viler than, &c.--rather, they were driven or beaten out of the land. The Horites in Mount Seir (Gen 14:6 with which compare Gen 36:20-21; Deu 2:12, Deu 2:22) were probably the aborigines, driven out by the tribe to which Job's ancestors belonged; their name means troglodytæ, or "dwellers in caves." To these Job alludes here (Job 30:1-8, and Gen 24:4-8, which compare together).

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 8. Children of fools] Children of nabal; children without a name; persons of no consideration, and descendants of such.

Viler than the earth.] Rather, driven out of the land; persons not fit for civil society.

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

(8) They were viler than the earth.—Rather, They are scourged out of the land, or are outcasts from the land.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. The verse reads in close connexion with Job_30:7,

Children of fools, yea children of base men,

They are scourged out of the land.

Children of “base men,” lit. of no name, i. e. base born, they are beaten or “crushed” out of the land.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They were children of fools,.... Their parents were fools, or they themselves were such; foolish children, or foolish men, were they that derided Job; and their derision of him was a proof of it: the meaning is not that they were idiots, or quite destitute of reason and natural knowledge, but that they were men of slender capacities; they were "Nabal like", which is the word here used of them; and, indeed, it may easily be concluded, they could not have much knowledge of men and things, from their pedigree, education, and manner of living before described; though rather this may signify their being wicked men, or children of such, which is the sense of the word "fool" frequently in the Psalms of David, and in the Proverbs of Solomon; and men may be fools in this sense, as having no understanding of divine and spiritual things, who yet have wit enough to do evil, though to do good they have no knowledge:

yea, children of base men, or "men without a name" (s); a kind without fame, Mr. Broughton renders it; an infamous generation of men, famous for nothing; had no name for blood, birth, and breeding; for families, for power and authority among men, having no title of honour or of office; nor for wealth, wisdom, nor strength, for which some have a name; but these men had no name but an ill one, for their folly and wickedness; had no good name, were of no credit and reputation with men; and perhaps, strictly and literally speaking, were without a name, being a spurious and bastardly breed; or living solitary in woods and deserts, in cliffs and caves; they belonged not to any tribe or nation, and so bore no name:

they are viler than the earth; on which they trod, and who are unworthy to tread upon it; and out of which their vile bodies were made, and yet were viler than that which is the basest of the elements, being most distant from heaven, the throne of God (t); they were not so valuable as some parts of the earth, the gold and silver, but were as vile as the dross of the earth, and viler than that; they were crushed and bruised, and "broken" more than the earth, as the word (u) signifies; they were as small and as contemptible as the dust of the earth and the mire of the streets, and more so; or than the men of the earth, as Aben Ezra observes, than the meanest and worst, and vilest of men: Mr. Broughton renders it, "banished from the earth"; smitten, stricken, and driven out of the land where they had dwelt, Job 30:5; whipped out of it, as some translate the word (w), as vagabonds; as a lazy, idle, pilfering set of people, not fit to be in human society; and by such base, mean, lowly people, were Christ and his apostles ill treated; see Mat 23:33.

(s) "absque nomine", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus; so Beza, Mercerus, Piscator, Drusius, Michaelis, Cocceius. (t) See Weemse's Observat. Natural. c 3. (u) "contriti", Montanus, Bolducius; so the Targum. (w) "Flagellati", Schultens.

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

They were children of fools - The word rendered “fools” נבל nâbâl, means,

(1) stupid, foolish; and

(2) abandoned, impious; compare 1Sa 25:3, 1Sa 25:25.

Here it means the worthless, the refuse of society, the abandoned. They had no respectable parentage. Umbreit, “A brood of infamy.” Coverdale, “Children of fools and villains.”

Children of base men - Margin, as in Hebrew, “men of no name.” They were men of no reputation; whose ancestors had in no way been distinguished; possibly meaning, also, that they herded together as beasts without even a name.

They were viler than the earth - Gesenius renders this, “They are frightened out of the land.” The Hebrew word (כאה) means “to chide, to upbraid,” and then in the niphal “to be chidden away,” or “to be driven off.” The sense is, as an impious and low-born race they were driven out of the land.

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

And not. Hebrew, "viler than the earth." (Protestants)

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).

Children of fools; either,

1. The genuine children of foolish parents; their children not only by birth, but by imitation; as they only are esteemed the children of Abraham who do the works of Abraham, Joh 8:39. Or,

2. Fools, by a common Hebraism, as the sons of men are put for men, and the children of wisdom for wise men, &c.

Children of base men, Heb. men without name, i.e. without any degree of credit or reputation; as men of name is put for renowned persons, Gen 6:4.

Viler than the earth, which we tread and spit upon, and are not willing to touch.

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

8. They were viler than the earth — Rather, They are beaten out of the land. Our aborigines furnish a parallel case.

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

They were children of fools. The physical degeneracy whereof Job has been speaking is accompanied in most instances by extreme mental incapacity. Some of the degraded races cannot count beyond four or five; others have not more than two or three hundred words in their vocabulary. They are all of low intellect, though occasionally extremely artful and cunning. Yea, children of base men; literally, children of no name. Their race had never made for itself any name, but was unknown and insignificant. They were viler than the earth; rather, they were scourged out of the land. This must not be understood literally. It is a rhetorical repetition of what had been already said in ver. 5. The expression may be compared with the tale in Herodotus, that when the Scythian slaves rebelled and took up arms, the Scythians scourged them into subjection (Herod., 4:3, 4).

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

were broken (in my days) from the land for I would humble them. [נִכְאוּ is] an expression of (Isa. 66:2), “of crushed spirit (נכה רוח).”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.