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Children of fools - Children of nabal; children without a name; persons of no consideration, and descendants of such.

Viler than the earth - Rather, driven out of the land; persons not fit for civil society.

They were children of fools - The word rendered “fools” נבל nâbâl means,

(1) stupid, foolish; and

(2) abandoned, impious; compare 1 Samuel 25:3, 1 Samuel 25:25.

Here it means the worthless, the refuse of society, the abandoned. They had no respectable parentage. Umbreit, “A brood of infamy.” Coverdale, “Children of fools and villains.”

Children of base men - Margin, as in Hebrew, “men of no name.” They were men of no reputation; whose ancestors had in no way been distinguished; possibly meaning, also, that they herded together as beasts without even a name.

They were viler than the earth - Gesenius renders this, “They are frightened out of the land.” The Hebrew word (כאה ) means “to chide, to upbraid,” and then in the niphal “to be chidden away,” or “to be driven off.” The sense is, as an impious and low-born race they were driven out of the land.

Job contrasts his present condition with his former honour and authority. What little cause have men to be ambitious or proud of that which may be so easily lost, and what little confidence is to be put in it! We should not be cast down if we are despised, reviled, and hated by wicked men. We should look to Jesus, who endured the contradiction of sinners.