Job 24:1-7

1 "Why doesn't the Mighty One set a time for judging sinful people? Why do those who know him have to keep waiting for that day?

2 People move their neighbor's boundary stones. They steal their neighbor's flocks.

3 They take away the donkeys that belong to children whose fathers have died. They take a widow's ox until she has paid what she owes.

4 They push those who are needy out of their way. They force all of the poor people in the land to go into hiding.

5 The poor are like wild donkeys in the desert. They have to go around looking for food. The dry and empty land provides the only food for their children.

6 The poor go to the fields and get a little grain. They gather up what is left in the vineyards of sinners.

7 The poor don't have any clothes. So they spend the night naked. They don't have anything to cover themselves in 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.