Upon [my] right [hand] rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.
Ver. 12. Upon the right hand rise the youth] Broughton readeth, The springals. The Hebrew hath it, The blossom, or the young birds, Vix puberes, such as are scarcely out of the shell. The youngsters, the boys, scoffed and abused Job. The lawless rout, riding without reins, took a licentious boldness to despise and despite him, because he was ever most severe against their unruly practices.
They push away my feet] They trip up my heels, as we phrase it, and lay me along. Vide admirandam humanae sortis varietatem, saith Brentius here; i.e. See the strange turns of human condition. Job was wont to have the chief seats in the temple, and salutations in the market place; now he cannot have a room anywhere to stand in, but every paltry boy is pushing him down. May it not be said of Job, as it was of that emperor, that he was fortunae pila et lusus? But he saw God in all.
And they raise up against me the ways of their destruction] Allegoria castrensis. Job borroweth this expression from the camp, as he doth many more from other things, whensoever he speaketh of his great afflictions, and the contempt that was cast upon him. Upon me they tread the paths of their unhappiness, so Beza; that is, they make a path in which they may practise that their malapert boldness in doing mischief. They beat their paths by running up and down therein, to undo me, so Vatablus; they cast upon me the causes of their woe, so Broughton.