Job 24:14

14 When daylight is gone, murderers get up. They kill poor people and those who are in need. In the night they sneak around like robbers.

Job 24:14 Meaning and Commentary

Job 24:14

The murderer rising with the light
The light of the morning, before the sun is risen, about the time the early traveller is set out on his journey, and men go to distant markets to buy and sell goods, and the poor labourer goes forth to his work; then is the time for one that is used to commit robbery and murder to rise from his bed, or from his lurking place, in a cave or a thicket, where he has lain all night, in order to meet with the above persons: and so

killeth the poor and needy;
takes away from them the little they have, whether money or provisions, and kills them because they have no more, and that they may not be evidence against him; it may be meant of the poor saints and people of God, whom the wicked slay out of hatred to them:

and in the night is as a thief;
kills privately, secretly, at an unawares, as the thief does his work; or the "as" here is not a note of similitude or likeness, but of reality and truth; and so Mr. Broughton renders the words, "and in the night he will be as a thief"; in the morning he is a robber on the highway, and a murderer; all the day he is in his lurking place, in some haunt or another, sleeping or carousing; and when the night comes on, then he acts the part of a thief; in the morning he not only robs, but murders, that he may not be detected; at night he only steals, and not kills, because men are asleep, and see him not.

Job 24:14 In-Context

12 The groans of those who are dying are heard from the city. Those who are wounded cry out for help. But God doesn't charge anyone with doing what is wrong.

13 "Some people hate it when daylight comes. In the daytime they never walk outside.

14 When daylight is gone, murderers get up. They kill poor people and those who are in need. In the night they sneak around like robbers.

15 Those who commit adultery wait until the sun goes down. They think, 'No one will see us.' They keep their faces hidden.

16 In the dark, people break into houses. But by day they shut themselves in. They don't want anything to do with the light.