Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

Now am I their song - I am the subject of their mirth, and serve as a proverb or by-word. They use me with every species of indignity.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

And now am I their song - See Job 17:6; compare Psalm 69:12, “I was the song of the drunkards;” Lamentations 3:14, “I was a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.” The sense is, that they made Job and his calamities the subject of low jesting, and treated him with contempt. His name and sufferings would be introduced into their scurrilous songs to give them pith and point, and to show how much they despised him now.

Yea, I am their by-word - See the notes at Job 17:6.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And now am I their song,.... The subject of their song, of whom they sung ballads about the streets, in public places, and at their festivals and merriments, as Christ the antitype of Job was the song of the drunkard, Psalm 69:12; see Lamentations 3:14; or the meaning may be, they rejoiced in his afflictions and calamities, and made themselves merry with them, which was cruel and inhuman, as David's enemies did in his, and those abject, mean, base people, like those that derided Job: and so the Edomites rejoiced over the children of Judah, in the day of their destruction, and as the inhabitants of Popish countries will rejoice over the witnesses when slain, and make merry, Psalm 35:15;

yea, I am their byword: all their talk was about him continually, and at every turn would use his name proverbially for an hypocrite, or a wicked man; and thus Christ, of whom Job was a type, became a proverb in the mouth of the Jews, Psalm 69:11; and as the Jews themselves now are with others, Jeremiah 24:9.

Geneva Study Bible

(e) They make songs of me, and mock my misery.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

(Job 17:6). Strikingly similar to the derision Jesus Christ underwent (Lamentations 3:14; Psalm 69:12). Here Job returns to the sentiment in Job 30:1. It is to such I am become a song of “derision.”

John Trapp Complete Commentary

Job 30:9 And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword.

Ver. 9. And now am I their song] They compose comedies out of my tragedies, and make themselves merry in my misery; they not only make ballads and sonnets of my sufferings, but also play them upon their instruments, as the Hebrew word importeth.

Yea, I am their byword] Sermonis argumentum, the matter of their discourse; I am all their talk; neither have they anything else whereof to chat and babble, but only of me; yea, to make my disgraces to pass into a proverb, they call all miserable men by my name, De me confabulantur et contemptim loquuntur (Disc.). The ale stakes served David in like sort; the drunkards upon their ale bench tossed his name as dogs do carrion, making him their ballad and their byword, Psalms 69:12. The whole Church complaineth of the like contempt, Psalms 79:4, Lamentations 3:14; Lamentations 3:63, Ezekiel 33:32. Thus when the invincible Armada, as they called it, was coming for England, Don Bernardino Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador in France, solaced himself with a vain and false poem or song of England’s miseries; which, as a triumph before the victory, he absurdly printed (Cambd. Eliz.). The gunpowder traitors also did the like in their sevenfold psalmody, as they called it; that devilish ditty, which secretly the Papists passed from hand to hand with tunes set to be sung or played. The matter consisted of railing upon King Edward VI, Queen Elizabeth, King James, and others; of petition, imprecation, prophecy, and praise (Spec. Bell. Sacr.).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

The matter of their song and derision. They now rejoice in my calamities, because formerly I used my authority to punish such vagrants and miscreants.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Second strophe — These human outcasts are led on to such brutal usage of Job by the treatment he had received at the hands of God, who had himself set the example, by letting loose his horde of calamities against his servant, Job 30:9-15.

9.Their song (of derision) — See Job 17:6. Nothing can give us of the West an idea of the shocking and indecent scurrilities Orientals put into their satirical, or, rather, abusive songs. (Kitto.)

George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Bye-word. "Proverb." (Haydock) --- They speak of me with contempt, chap. xvii. 6.

Mark Dunagan Commentary on the Bible

"And now I have become their taunt, I have even become a byword to them": "This scum of society-a brood without even names-considered Job scum" (Bible Knowledge Comm. p. 752).

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged

And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword. (Job 17:6.) Strikingly similar to the derision Jesus Christ underwent (Lamentations 3:14; Psalms 69:12). Here Job returns to the sentiment in Job 30:1. It is to such that I am become a song of 'derision.'

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) And now am I their song.—See the references in the margin, which show that it is quite appropriate to give to the complaints of Job a Messianic interpretation.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

am I

17:6; Psalms 35:15,16; 44:14; 69:12; Lamentations 3:14,63