Job 30:5

5 They are driven forth from the midst of 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 They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.

4 They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom are their food.

5 They are driven forth from the midst of men; They cry after them as after a thief;

6 So that they dwell in frightful valleys, And in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

7 Among the bushes they bray; And under the nettles they are gathered together.