“And now I have become their song; I am a byword to them.
Here Job makes a very large and sad complaint of the great disgrace he had fallen into, from the height of honour and reputation, which was exceedingly grievous and cutting to such an ingenuous spirit as Job's was. Two things he insists upon as greatly aggravating his affliction: - I. The meanness of the persons that affronted him.
Commenting on Job 30:1-14
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, Psa 69:12; see Lam 3:14; or the meaning may be, they rejoiced in his afflictions and calamities, and made themselves merry with them, which was...
(Job 17:6). Strikingly similar to the derision Jesus Christ underwent (Lam 3:14; Psa 69:12). Here Job returns to the sentiment in Job 30:1. It is to such I am become a song of "derision."