As wild asses; which are wild, and lawless, and unteachable, and fierce, and greedy of prey, or food, which they snatch out of the goods or labours of the husbandman; in all which they are fit emblems of these men. Or, these wild men; for so this word signifies, Genesis 16:12, as elsewhere wild asses. The particle as is not in the Hebrew. In the desert, which is the proper habitation of wild asses, Jeremiah 2:24. If this be understood of the wild men, he placeth them in the desert and wilderness, either because they by their spoils and violences have destroyed or driven away the people, as is intimated, Job 24:4, and thereby turned populous places into deserts; or because such places as have but few houses and inhabitants (which are oft so called, as Genesis 21:20,21 Joshua 15:61,62 1 Kings 2:34 1 Kings 9:15 Isaiah 42:11 Matthew 3:1) are most fit for their robberies. Go they; either,
1. The poor, whom they spoiled and drove away from their own former habitations into deserts, where they hid themselves, and wrought hard for a subsistence. Or rather,
2. The oppressors, who are more fitly compared to wild asses, and more truly said to seek for prey, than those poor oppressed persons mentioned Job 24:4, and of whom he speaks both in the foregoing and following verses. To their work, i.e. to spoil and rob, which is their constant work and trade. The wilderness yieldeth food for them; they are so diligent and industrious in that work, that they will fetch food for them and theirs even out of desert places, in which the owners can very hardly subsist. For their children, or servants; for the word signifies both children and servants, even the whole family.