They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.
The verse pictures homeless sufferers driven into the mountains with no shelter, soaked through by the showers of the mountains and clinging to or embracing the rock for protection. Their naked exposure to drenching mountain rain leaves them with nothing but the rock to press against for cover. That destitution follows the violence of wicked men who remove landmarks, steal flocks, drive away the donkey of the fatherless, take the widow's ox for a pledge, and turn the needy out of the way. By these acts the poor are stripped and thrust aside until they are left houseless in the hills.
The clinging to the rock is like taking refuge beneath a projecting rock when caught in a rainstorm, pressing close under its overhang because there is no other shelter. Job holds this picture of oppression up before his friends to set it against his own life. In that life he delivered the poor that cried and the fatherless and him that had none to help him, caused the widow's heart to sing for joy, and was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and a father to the poor. He offers that contrast as a complete justification of himself and a vindication of his own righteousness.
The verse pictures homeless sufferers driven into the mountains with no shelter, soaked through by the showers of the mountains and clinging to or embracing the rock for protection. Their naked exposure to drenching mountain rain leaves them with nothing but the rock to press against for cover. That destitution follows the violence of wicked men who remove landmarks, steal flocks, drive away the donkey of the fatherless, take the widow's ox for a pledge, and turn the needy out of the way. By these acts the poor are stripped and thrust aside until they are left houseless in the hills.
The clinging to the rock is like taking refuge beneath a projecting rock when caught in a rainstorm, pressing close under its overhang because there is no other shelter. Job holds this picture of oppression up before his friends to set it against his own life. In that life he delivered the poor that cried and the fatherless and him that had none to help him, caused the widow's heart to sing for joy, and was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and a father to the poor. He offers that contrast as a complete justification of himself and a vindication of his own righteousness.