Job 24:1-7

1 "Why doesn't the Almighty set aside times [for punishment]? Why don't those who are close to him see his days [of judgment]?
2 "[People] move boundary markers. They steal flocks and tend them as shepherds.
3 They drive away the orphan's donkey. They take the widow's ox as security for a loan.
4 They force needy people off the road. All the poor people of the country go into hiding.
5 Like wild donkeys in the desert, poor people go out to do their work, looking for food. The plains provide food for their children.
6 They harvest animal food in the field [to feed themselves]. They pick the leftover grapes in the wicked person's vineyard.
7 All night they lie naked without a covering from the cold.

Job 24:1-7 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 24

This chapter contains the second part of Job's answer to the last discourse of Eliphaz, in which he shows that wicked men, those of the worst characters, prosper in the world, and go through it with impunity; he lays down this as a certain truth, that though no time is hid from God, yet they that are most familiar with him, and know most of him, do not see, and cannot observe, any days of his for judging and punishing wicked men in, this life, Job 24:1; and instances in men guilty of injustice, violence, oppression, cruelty, and inhumanity, to their neighbours, and yet God lays not folly to them, or charges them with sin, and punishes them for it, Job 24:2-12; and in persons that commit the most atrocious crimes in secret, such as murderers, adulterers, and thieves, Job 24:13-17; he allows that there is a curse upon their portion, and that the grave shall consume them, and they shall be remembered no more, Job 24:18-20; and because of their ill treatment of others, though they may be in safety and prosperity, and be exalted for a while, they shall be brought low and cut off by death, but generally speaking are not punished in this life, Job 24:21-24; and concludes with the greatest assurance of being in the right, and having truth on his side, Job 24:25.

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