3 - Society
In the chaotic and terrifying days of Job the victims of the disasters became the outlaws of the society. They were cursed and driven away (Job 30:3-8):
- From want and famine they were solitary, fleeing into the wilderness, in former time desolate and waste, who cut up mallow by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.
They were driven forth from among men; they cried after them as after a thief, to dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth and in the rocks. Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.
They were children of fools, yea, children of base men; they were viler than the earth [Or: They were scourged out of the land. Or: are outcasts from the land (footnotes ASV)].
Does it surprise other people took the law in their own hands? See Job 24:2-4, 9 and 14; 1:15 and 17.
- Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks and feed thereof. They drive away the ass of the fatherless; they take the widow's ox as a pledge. They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge from the poor. The murderer, rising with the light, killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.
The oxen were plowing and the asses feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them away. Yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only have escaped alone to tell thee!
The Chaldeans made up three bands, and fell upon the camels and have carried them away, yea, and have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only have escaped alone to tell thee!
For just a bit of food the losers of the society were sweated by unscrupulous men (Job 24:10-11):
- They go about naked, without clothing; hungry, they carry the sheaves; among the olive rows of the wicked they make oil; they tread the wine presses, but suffer thirst.
In this world Job was a righteous man, helping the poor (Job 29:7-17).
- When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street! The young men saw me and hid themselves, and the aged arose and stood up. The princes refrained from talking, and laid their hand on their mouth. The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth. When the ear heard me, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me; because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me; and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor, and the cause which I knew not I searched out.
But as soon as Job became a sick and poor man himself, he was treated as an outcast too (Job 19:13-19; 30:9-10).
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