Job 24:9

9 They did violence, and robbed fatherless and motherless children; and they spoiled, either robbed, the community of poor men (and they stole from, or plundered, the poor).

Job 24:9 Meaning and Commentary

Job 24:9

They pluck the fatherless from the breast
Either on purpose to starve it, which must be extremely barbarous; or to sell it to be brought up a slave; or by obliging the mother to wean it before the due time, that she might be the better able to do work for them they obliged her to. Mr. Broughton renders the words, "of mischievousness they rob the fatherless"; that is, through the greatness of the mischief they do, as Ben Gersom interprets it; or through the exceeding mischievous disposition they are of; of which this is a flagrant instance; or

``they rob the fatherless of what remains for him after spoiling ^F14,''

or devastation, through the plunder of his father's substance now dead, which was exceeding cruel:

and take a pledge of the poor;
either the poor himself, or his poor fatherless children, see ( 2 Kings 4:1 ) ; or what is "upon the poor" ^F15, as it may be rendered; that is, his raiment, which was commonly taken for a pledge; and, by a law afterwards established in Israel, was obliged to be restored before sunset, that he might have a covering to sleep in, ( Exodus 22:26 Exodus 22:27 ) ; (See Gill on Job 22:6).

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FOOTNOTES:

F14 (dvm) "per devastationem", some in Munster; "post vastationem", Tigurine version; so Nachmanides & Bar Tzemach.
F15 (yne le) "super inopem", Cocceius, Schultens; so Ben Gersom.

Job 24:9 In-Context

7 They leave men naked, and take away their clothes, to the which men there is no covering in cold; (They leave people naked, having taken away their clothes, for whom then there is no more cover from the cold;)

8 which men the rains of mountains wet, and they have no covering, and they embrace stones. (they be drenched by rains from the mountains, and have nothing to cover themselves with, and so all they can do is hold onto stones.)

9 They did violence, and robbed fatherless and motherless children; and they spoiled, either robbed, the community of poor men (and they stole from, or plundered, the poor).

10 They took away ears of corn from naked men, and (those) going without cloak, and from hungry men. (They took away clothes from those who now must go naked, and ears of corn from the hungry.)

11 They were hid in midday among the heaps of those men, that thirst, when the presses of grapes be trodden. (They make oil in shady places, and tread the winepresses, but they themselves suffer thirst.)