Job expresses deep contempt for the people mocking him, making it clear that he never placed any practical or spiritual value on them or their ancestors. He questions what possible benefit he could have ever gained from their abilities.
Commentators offer various reasons for why these individuals were utterly useless to him. Some suggest they were simply too weak physically to perform basic labor, such as protecting flocks from predators [מצודת דוד], or that they were entirely incapable of providing any help at all [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Others view them as wicked individuals whose presence only brought disaster and harm [רש״י]. Even if they possessed physical strength, Job rejected them because they were foolish and lacked basic understanding [רמב״ן]. An alternative perspective suggests that Job was dismissing not their physical power, but their wealth and money, which he equally did not desire [רמב״ן].
The ultimate ruin of these mockers is understood in two primary ways. The first approach explains that what they lost was their old age [רש״י, מצודת ציון, רמב״ן, אבן עזרא, חומת אנך] or their time [רלב״ג]. According to this view, their later years were entirely meaningless. This lack of meaning stemmed from their low status and weakness [מצודת דוד], or because they behaved like foolish children despite their advanced age [רמב״ן]. Another possibility is that they suffered so severely in their youth that they aged prematurely, making it impossible to tell when they actually grew old [אבן עזרא]. On a spiritual level, these wicked individuals lost the honorable status of elders because they wasted their lives in sin, failing to build days of true value and meaning [חומת אנך].
The second approach views their loss not as old age, but as the loss of youthful freshness and physical vitality [מלבי״ם, ביאור שטיינזלץ, אלשיך]. Even while young, their strength failed and their health completely dried up due to poverty, hunger, and isolation in the wilderness [מלבי״ם, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Their life force did not fade naturally and gradually as it does for most people. Instead, it vanished so rapidly that they were considered practically dead while still alive [אלשיך].