Job 30:10

They abhor me,.... As it is no wonder they should, since his inward and most intimate friends did, Job 19:19; they abhorred him, not for any evil in him; Job was ready enough to abhor that himself,

They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face. In my face - rather, refrain not to spit (in deliberate contempt) before my face.

They flee far from me, in contempt of my person, and loathing of my sores. Spare not to spit in my face; not literally, for they kept far from him, as he now said; but figuratively, i.e. they use all manner of contemptuous and reproachful expressions and carriages towards me, not only behind my back, but even to my face.

Job 30:10 They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face.Ver. 10. They abhor me, they flee far from me] As if I were a leper or a bugbear, or that my breath were infectious; like that maid spoken of by Avicen, who, feeding upon poison, was herself healthy, yet infected others with her venomous breath. Job was wont to be honoured; now he is as much abhorred. People were used to hanging upon his lips for learned counsel, but they stand aloof, and keep at a distance. They looked upon that face of his as the face of an angel, which now, with utmost despite and detestation, they spit upon and spare not. At virtutes evertere non possunt, as Demetrius Phalereus said, when the Athenians threw down the many statues they had once erected in honour of him, But they cannot throw down my virtues and valiant acts, whereby I deserved those statues. Job was not without his cordial in this sad and sudden change of his condition. For, first, the bird in his own bosom sang sweetly still, as birds in the spring tune most melodiously when it rains most sadly. And, secondly, what if these miscreants prate against Job with malicious words, as Diotrephes did against Demetrius, 3 John 1:9-13, yet it is enough for Job or Demetrius that they have a good report of all men; that is, of all good men, who indeed are the only men (because a good name only is a name, Ecclesiastes 7:1, and a good wife only a wife, Proverbs 18:22) to be reckoned on; and of the truth itself, that is more, Job 30:12. And spare not to spit in my face] In signum videlicet maximi contemptus et indignationis (Junius), In token of greatest contempt and indignation, as Numbers 12:14 Isaiah 50:6 Deuteronomy 25:9. The face is the table of beauty or comeliness; and when it is spit upon it is made the seat of shame. Their words were, likely, such as the English barons here said of the popes that excommunicated them, Fie on such rascal ribalds, &c., Marcidi ribauldi (Mat. Paris,). Our Lord Christ also was spit upon in like manner, that he might cleanse our faces from the filth of sin, and make them shine with his beams, 1 John 3:2.

Verse 10. They abhor me] What a state must civil society be in when such indignities were permitted to be offered to the aged and afflicted!

9–10. Job’s treatment now at the hands of these outcasts. With “spit in my face” comp. ch. Job 17:6. In ch. 24. Job referred to this miserable race With compassion; they had often no doubt excited his pity, and he saw in their lot and in the injustice and cruelties which they suffered at the hands of more prosperous men a strange mystery of providence. Now he speaks of their conduct to himself with resentment; for it was no requital of any injury he had ever done them. Yet though they might mistake Job’s individual feeling to them, he was one of the class that had robbed them and that continued the robbery and oppression, and they avenged their wrongs on him with a malicious delight in the calamities that had overtaken him.

They abhor me - Hebrew, They regard me as abominable. They flee far from me - Even such an impious and low born race now will have nothing to do with me.

10. Spit in my face — Numbers 12:14; Deuteronomy 25:9; see also Job 17:6. Some improperly understand the grossly insulting act in this case to have been before, not into, the face.