Job 30:5

5 They are driven forth from among [men] -- they cry after them as after a thief --

Job 30:5 Meaning and Commentary

Job 30:5

They were driven from among [men]
From towns and cities, and all civil society, as unfit to be among them; not for any good, it may be observed, but for crimes that they had done, like our felons, and transported persons:

they cried after them as [after] a thief;
as they were driven and run along, the people called after them, saying, there goes a thief; which they said by way of abhorrence of them, and for the shame of them, and that all might be warned and cautioned against them; and, generally speaking, such as are idle and slothful, and thereby become miserable, are pilferers and thieves.

Job 30:5 In-Context

3 Withered up through want and hunger, they flee into waste places long since desolate and desert:

4 They gather the salt-wort among the bushes, and the roots of the broom for their food.

5 They are driven forth from among [men] -- they cry after them as after a thief --

6 To dwell in gloomy gorges, in caves of the earth and the rocks:

7 They bray among the bushes; under the brambles they are gathered together: