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Now am I their song - I am the subject of their mirth, and serve as a proverb or by-word. They use me with every species of indignity.

And now am I their song - See Job 17:6; compare Psalm 69:12, “I was the song of the drunkards;” Lamentations 3:14, “I was a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.” The sense is, that they made Job and his calamities the subject of low jesting, and treated him with contempt. His name and sufferings would be introduced into their scurrilous songs to give them pith and point, and to show how much they despised him now.

Yea, I am their by-word - See the notes at Job 17:6.

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.