Job 24:1-9

1 Times be not hid from Almighty God; soothly they that know him, know not his days (but even they who know him, do not know when the day of reckoning is).
2 Other men have turned over the terms, (or the boundary stones,) of (their) neighbours, they have taken away their flocks, and fed themselves.
3 They have driven away the ass of fatherless children, and they took away the cow of a widow for a wed. (They have driven away the donkey of some fatherless children, and they took away the cow of a widow for a pledge.)
4 They destroyed the way of poor men, and they oppressed together the mild men of [the] earth. (They pushed the poor out of their way, and they oppressed the needy of the earth, who huddle together.)
5 Other men as wild asses in desert go out to their work; and they wake to (take) prey, and before make ready bread to their children. (Other men, like wild donkeys, go out to the wilderness; and they seek prey, to find food for their children.)
6 They cut down a field not theirs, and they gather [the] grapes of his vinery, whom they have oppressed by violence. (They cut down a field not their own, and they gather grapes from the vineyard of the wicked.)
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).

Job 24:1-9 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.

Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.