“They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;) To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks” (Job 30:5,6).
To most people, the term “cave man” means a brutish ape-man, not yet fully evolved into a true human being. However, these people, given such names as Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon by evolutionary anthropologists, were evidently degenerate—not evolving—men. When God confused the languages of mankind at the Tower of Babel, the various family groups were forced to scatter and eventually to develop their own cultures and nations, competing with each other for the best locations and resources. The weakest groups among these rebels were forced out to the least desirable sites, and many such tribes eventually died out. These sad events were recalled only a few centuries later by Job: “He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. They grope in the dark without light, and He maketh them to stagger like a drunken man” (Job 12:24,25).
Certain of these degenerate cave dwellers were among those who dared to ridicule godly Job in his sufferings. In the verses following our text he noted: “Among the bushes they brayed; . . . They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth. And now am I become their song, yea, I am their byword” (Job 30:7–9).
In the last days, many will again be forced into caves. “And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth” (Isaiah 2:19; see also Revelation 6:15). As in ancient times the enemies of the Lord will again flee from the light of His presence to seek the darkness of holes. HMM
