But now they that are younger than I hold me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.
Read Chapter 30
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Flock, to watch over them. (Sanchez) (Calmet)
I had so little confidence in them, (Haydock) or they were so very mean. (Calmet)
They were not as well fed as my dogs. (Nicetas.)
Job does not speak this out of contempt, as he was affable to all. But this proverbial expression denotes how vile these people were. (Menochius)
Even the most contemptible, and such as were not fit to have the care of dogs, derided him. (Worthington)
15. 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. [1 John 2, 19] For ‘they that are younger in time deride Holy Church,’ when they that went out from her, set at nought the words of her instruction; concerning whom it is further added;
Whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.
Who is the ‘flock’ of Holy Church saving the multitude of the faithful? Or who else are called ‘the dogs’ of this flock, but the holy Teachers, who became the guardians of those believers? Which same whilst in behalf of their Lord they cried aloud, given up to daily and nightly watchings, uttered, so to say, loud barks of preaching. Concerning whom it is said to that Church by the Psalmist, The tongue of Thy dogs from ...
“But now they make sport of me, those who are younger than I.” These words testify to the authority, power and grace that, as he has asserted, he used to own in his previous days. The more favorable his state of former happiness had been, the more bitter now it makes his feeling of pain after turning into misfortune.
“Whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock.” He now refers to an evidence of extreme poverty, through which also the vileness of his condition appears, not only the fact that he lives on charity but also that he is appointed to take care of the food of dogs. - "Exposition on the Book of Job 30.1"
