30:1 “But now they mock me, those who are younger 1 than I,
whose fathers I disdained too much 2
to put with my sheep dogs. 3
30:9 “And now I have become their taunt song;
I have become a byword 4 among them.
1 tn Heb “smaller than I for days.”
2 tn Heb “who I disdained their fathers to set…,” meaning “whose fathers I disdained to set.” The relative clause modifies the young fellows who mock; it explains that Job did not think highly enough of them to put them with the dogs. The next verse will explain why.
3 sn Job is mocked by young fellows who come from low extraction. They mocked their elders and their betters. The scorn is strong here – dogs were despised as scavengers.
4 tn The idea is that Job has become proverbial, people think of misfortune and sin when they think of him. The statement uses the ordinary word for “word” (מִלָּה, millah), but in this context it means more: “proverb; byword.”