Job 24:10-23

10 Lacking clothes, they go about naked; they carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.

11 They crush olives among the terraces^[a] ; they tread the winepresses, yet suffer thirst.

12 The groans of the dying rise from the city, and the souls of the wounded cry out for help. But God charges no one with wrongdoing.

13 “There are those who rebel against the light, who do not know its ways or stay in its paths.

14 When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up, kills the poor and needy, and in the night steals forth like a thief.

15 The eye of the adulterer watches for dusk; he thinks, ‘No eye will see me,’ and he keeps his face concealed.

16 In the dark, thieves break into houses, but by day they shut themselves in; they want nothing to do with the light.

17 For all of them, midnight is their morning; they make friends with the terrors of darkness.

18 “Yet they are foam on the surface of the water; their portion of the land is cursed, so that no one goes to the vineyards.

19 As heat and drought snatch away the melted snow, so the grave snatches away those who have sinned.

20 The womb forgets them, the worm feasts on them; the wicked are no longer remembered but are broken like a tree.

21 They prey on the barren and childless woman, and to the widow they show no kindness.

22 But God drags away the mighty by his power; though they become established, they have no assurance of life.

23 He may let them rest in a feeling of security, but his eyes are on their ways.

Job 24:10-23 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.

Cross References

• 1. Deuteronomy 24:12-13
• 2. S Leviticus 19:9
• 3. Isaiah 5:2; Isaiah 16:10; Haggai 2:16
• 4. Micah 6:15
• 5. S Job 12:19; Job 30:28; Psalms 5:2; Psalms 22:24; Psalms 39:12; Psalms 119:147; Isaiah 30:19; Jeremiah 50:46; Jeremiah 51:52,54; Ezekiel 26:15; Revelation 6:10
• 6. S Job 9:23
• 7. ver 16; Job 38:15; John 3:19-20; 1 Thessalonians 5:4-5
• 8. Job 17:12; Job 38:20; Psalms 18:28; Isaiah 5:20; Ephesians 5:8-14
• 9. Isaiah 3:15; Micah 3:3
• 10. S Job 20:19; Psalms 37:32
• 11. Psalms 10:9
• 12. Job 31:9,27; Proverbs 1:10
• 13. Proverbs 7:8-9
• 14. Psalms 10:11
• 15. S Exodus 22:2; Matthew 6:19
• 16. S ver 13; John 3:20
• 17. S Job 18:11
• 18. S Job 15:22; S Job 18:5
• 19. S Job 9:26; Jude 1:13
• 20. Job 22:16; Isaiah 57:20
• 21. S Job 5:3
• 22. ver 6
• 23. Job 6:17
• 24. S Job 21:13
• 25. S Job 7:5
• 26. S Job 21:26
• 27. S Job 18:17; Proverbs 10:7
• 28. S Job 14:7; Psalms 31:12; Daniel 4:14
• 29. S Job 22:9
• 30. S Job 9:4
• 31. S Job 12:19
• 32. Deuteronomy 28:66; Matthew 6:27; James 4:14
• 33. S Job 9:24; Amos 6:1; Job 12:6
• 34. S 2 Chronicles 16:9
• 35. S Job 10:4; Job 11:11

Footnotes

• [a]. The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.