Job 24:11

11 They crush olives in their presses;[a] they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.[b]

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 The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized as collateral.
10 Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry sheaves but go hungry.
11 They crush olives in their presses; they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.
12 From the city, men groan; the mortally wounded cry for help, yet God pays no attention to this crime.
13 The wicked are those who rebel against the light. They do not recognize its ways or stay on its paths.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Lit olives between their rows
  • [b]. Dt 28:39; Isa 16:10; Mc 6:15
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