They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.
The book of Job is poetry, the oldest book in the Bible and the oldest poetical book that has come down, conjectured to have been written by Moses in Midian. The verse stands in the second of the book's four parts, the debate in chapters 4 to 31 between Job and his three friends on his afflictions in three circles of speeches by each. That debate is distinct from the prose prologue in chapters 1 and 2, the speeches of Elihu in chapters 32 to 37, the speeches of the Lord out of the storm-cloud, and the prose epilogue in chapter 42:7-17.
It also stands in the closing part of Job, chapters 28 to 42, where Job still defends himself as knowing he has committed no open sins against God and as earnest and anxious for God to manifest Himself to him. It belongs to Job's arguments about suffering, in which his friends' claims that were generally true were misapplied to his case.
It describes the outcasts Job contrasts with the respected people of his former life as descendants of fools and men of low standing, morally and socially debased like refuse. It is part of Job's account of the contemptible people who mock and trouble him.
The book of Job is poetry, the oldest book in the Bible and the oldest poetical book that has come down, conjectured to have been written by Moses in Midian. The verse stands in the second of the book's four parts, the debate in chapters 4 to 31 between Job and his three friends on his afflictions in three circles of speeches by each. That debate is distinct from the prose prologue in chapters 1 and 2, the speeches of Elihu in chapters 32 to 37, the speeches of the Lord out of the storm-cloud, and the prose epilogue in chapter 42:7-17.
It also stands in the closing part of Job, chapters 28 to 42, where Job still defends himself as knowing he has committed no open sins against God and as earnest and anxious for God to manifest Himself to him. It belongs to Job's arguments about suffering, in which his friends' claims that were generally true were misapplied to his case.
It describes the outcasts Job contrasts with the respected people of his former life as descendants of fools and men of low standing, morally and socially debased like refuse. It is part of Job's account of the contemptible people who mock and trouble him.