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

(1) stupid, foolish; and

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

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.

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 Matthew 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.

They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.

base...: Heb. men of no name

8. fools-that is, the impious and abandoned (1Sa 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 (Ge 14:6 with which compare Ge 36:20, 21; De 2:12, 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 Ge 24:4-8, which compare together).

30:1-14 Job contrasts his present condition with his former honour and authority. What little cause have men to be ambitious or proud of that which may be so easily lost, and what little confidence is to be put in it! We should not be cast down if we are despised, reviled, and hated by wicked men. We should look to Jesus, who endured the contradiction of sinners.