“But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.”
But now those younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with the dogs of my flock, inaugurating the mirror image of chapter 29, depicting the present contempt Job experiences from those he would have previously scorned. The contrast between then and now establishes the dramatic reversal: those Job's authority once silenced now mock him. The reference to fathers he would not have ranked with dogs of his flock emphasizes how thoroughly social hierarchies have inverted. The verse establishes present contempt as the counterpart to former honor.
Church Fathers on Job 30:1
But now they that are younger than I have me in derision. All heretics when compared to the age of the Church Universal are fitly called ‘younger’ in time, because they went forth out of her, not she out of them. Whence it is rightly also said by John; They went out from us, but they were not of us: for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. For ‘they that are younger in time deride Holy Church,’ when they that went out from her, set at nought…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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