Job 30:5

5 They were driven forth from among men; they cried 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 From want and famine they were solitary, fleeing into the wilderness, in former time desolate and waste,

4 who cut up mallow by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.

5 They were driven forth from among men; they cried after them as after a thief,

6 to dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth and in the rocks.

7 Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together.