Job 24:11

11 They make oil within the walls of these men; They tread [their] winepresses, and suffer thirst.

Job 24:11 Meaning and Commentary

Job 24:11

[Which] make oil within their walls
Not the poor within their own walls; as if the sense was, that they made their oil in a private manner within the walls of their houses, or in their cellars, lest it should be known and taken away from them; for such cannot be thought to have had oliveyards to make oil of; rather within the walls of their rich masters, where they were kept closely confined to their work, as if in a prison; or within the walls and fences of their oliveyards, where their olive presses stood; or best of all "within the rows F17 [of] their [olive trees]", as the word signifies, where having gathered the olives, they pressed out the oil in the presses and this they did at noon, in the heat of the day, as the word F18 for making oil is observed by some to signify, and yet had nothing given them to quench their thirst, as follows:

[and] tread [their] winepresses, and suffer thirst;
after having gathered their grapes from their vines for them, they trod them in the winepresses, and made their wine, and yet would not allow them to drink of it to allay their thirst.


FOOTNOTES:

F17 (Mtrwv Nyb) "inter ordines", Mercerus, Piscator, Cocceius; so Sephorno, and some in Eliae Tishbi, p. 241.
F18 (wryhuy) "meridiati sunt", V. L. so Bolducius, Schultens.

Job 24:11 In-Context

9 There are that pluck the fatherless from the breast, And take a pledge of the poor;
10 [So that] they go about naked without clothing, And being hungry they carry the sheaves.
11 They make oil within the walls of these men; They tread [their] winepresses, and suffer thirst.
12 From out of the populous city men groan, And the soul of the wounded crieth out: Yet God regardeth not the folly.
13 These are of them that rebel against the light; They know not the ways thereof, Nor abide in the paths thereof.
The American Standard Version is in the public domain.