John Trapp on Job 30:1

CHAP. XXX. Verſe 1 But now they that are younger than I, have me in deriſion]

ID quod ei morbo ſuo longè gravius fuerit, ſicut & Hebraei teſtantur, ſaith Mercer. This troubled him much more than all his ſores and ſickneſſes; that every young ſhackrag ſlighted him, and laughed him to ſcorn. In this caſe eſpecially, —Faciles motus mens generoſa capit.Ovid. You ſhall finde ſome, ſaith Eraſmus, that if death be threatned, can deſpiſe it: but to be deſpiſed or belyed, they cannot brook; but leaſt of all by baſe perſons: Qui[illegible: 1 letter]zbet ab aquila quam corvo diſcerpi mavnl[illegible: 1 letter]. Job was now grown ancient,Cognate ſunt [non-Latin text not transcribed] and had been honorable, as he had ſet forth chap. 29. Old-age and Honour, in the Greek tongue, are near a kin: and, Summa fuit quondam capitis reverentia cani: Inque ſuo precio ruga ſenilis erat. But it is a ſigne of gaſping devotion, and that things are far out of order, when the Child behaveth himſelf proudly againſt the ancient, and the baſe againſt the honourable, Eſa. 3.5. as at Bethel, where thoſe ill-bred Children derided the old Prophet, and petulantly cryed after him. Go up thou baldhead, go up thou baldhead, 2 King. 2.23. If the like unworthy uſuage befal us, let it ſuffice us that our betters, Job. David. Chriſt himſelf have ſped no better. Art not thou glad to fare as Phocion? ſaid he to a meaner man, that was to die with him.

Whoſe fathers I would have diſdained to have ſet with the dogs of my ſtock] i.e. To have made my dog-keepers, that they might feed with them as the prodigal ſon did with the ſwine. Dogs are commonly looked upon as paltery carrion Creatures: only ſome, for their minds ſake, and others for certain neceſſary uſes, as ſhepherds, and hunters, make ſome reckoning of them: It was not permitted to a dog to [illegible: 1 word] into the Acropolis, or tower of Athens, for his libidinouſneſs and ill-favour. [non-Latin text not transcribed] Plut. [non-Latin text not transcribed] p. 175. At Rome they crucified a dog yearly, in deteſtation of thoſe dogs in the Capitol that gave not warning of the approach of an Enemy. Job, it ſeems, had his dog-feeders; men of meaneſt account. Now theſe mens ſons, a beggarly breed, and very raſcals, inſulted and trampled opon this precious man, dealt as baſely and courſely with him, haply, as thoſe fictious fellows in Geneva did with reverend Calvin; whom they not only in contempt called Cain (as Athanaſius was ſomtimes by his enemies called Sathanaſius: and Cyprian, Cyprian; that is, a dunghil-fellow) but alſo named their Dogs Calvin, as Beza in his life reporteth.