Job 24:5

Second strophe Dispossessed of their homes, the poor are driven forth like wild animals into the desert, destitute, Job 24:5-8.

5. Behold… wild asses… desert Job thus personifies these wretched exiles, driven away into the wilderness. The wild ass was proverbial for being untamable. It lived in great herds far from the haunts of men, and was, according to Ker Porter, of “prodigious swiftness.” See note, Job 11:12. That Job cannot, as Canon Cook thinks, mean robber hordes, is evident from the want of resemblance between them and the wild ass, which is not at all a beast of prey, but a timorous animal, whose only defence is swiftness of foot.

Their work That of seeking a precarious support; a meaning determined by the last clause of the verse.

For a prey Tareph; meat, food. The same word as in Proverbs 31:15. The wilderness, etc. Literally, The desert to him is food for the children. The desert yields its herbs and roots, the scantiest fare, to him the father, who, as provider, represents the family.

Their children A stroke of tenderness; for children are the first to feel the pangs of hunger.