Fathers

Job 30

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“But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I considered unworthy to put with my sheep dogs. Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished? They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation. They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom tree are their food. They are driven out from among men. They cry after them as after a thief; So that they dwell in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks. They bray among the bushes. They are gathered together under the nettles . 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. For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have thrown off restraint before me. On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, They cast up against me their ways of destruction. They mar my path. They promote my destruction without anyone’s help. As through a wide breach they come. They roll themselves in amid the ruin. Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud. “Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold of me. In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest. My garment is disfigured by great force. It binds me about as the collar of my tunic. He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes. I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me. You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me. You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm. For I know that you will bring me to death, To the house appointed for all living. “However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help? Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy? When I looked for good, then evil came. When I waited for light, darkness came. My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest. Days of affliction have come on me. I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help. I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches. My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat. Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.

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What the Fathers say

Job 30:1

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

But now they that are younger than I have me in derision. Whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock. All heretics when compared to the age of the Church Universal are fitly called 'younger' in time, because they went forth out of her, not she out of them. Whence it is rightly also said by John; They went out from us, but they were not of us: for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. …

Morals on the Book of Job, Book XX ↗

Thomas Aquinas

After he had listed the many prosperous things which he had enjoyed in times past, he here lists the adversities which he was then suffering. First, in contrast to his former glory and reverence, he shows that he is held in contempt now. Contempt is more difficult for a person to bear in proportion to the lack of worth of the character of the one who holds another in contempt. So he shows that those who hold him in contempt are contemptible in many ways. …

Commentary on Job ↗