Job 24:7-17

7 At night they sleep with nothing to cover them, nothing to keep them from the cold.

8 They are drenched by the rain that falls on the mountains, and they huddle beside the rocks for shelter.

9 Evil people make slaves of fatherless infants and take the children of the poor in payment for debts.

10 But the poor must go out with no clothes to protect them; they must go hungry while harvesting wheat.

11 They press olives for oil, and grapes for wine, but they themselves are thirsty.

12 In the cities the wounded and dying cry out, but God ignores their prayers.

13 There are those who reject the light; they don't understand it or go where it leads.

14 At dawn the murderer gets up and goes out to kill the poor, and at night he steals.

15 The adulterer waits for twilight to come; he covers his face so that no one can see him.

16 At night thieves break into houses, but by day they hide and avoid the light.

17 They fear the light of day, but darkness holds no terror for them.

Job 24:7-17 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.