Job 24:11

11 Between their walls they make oil, Wine-presses they have trodden, and thirst.

Job 24:11 Meaning and Commentary

Job 24:11

[Which] make oil within their walls
Not the poor within their own walls; as if the sense was, that they made their oil in a private manner within the walls of their houses, or in their cellars, lest it should be known and taken away from them; for such cannot be thought to have had oliveyards to make oil of; rather within the walls of their rich masters, where they were kept closely confined to their work, as if in a prison; or within the walls and fences of their oliveyards, where their olive presses stood; or best of all "within the rows F17 [of] their [olive trees]", as the word signifies, where having gathered the olives, they pressed out the oil in the presses and this they did at noon, in the heat of the day, as the word F18 for making oil is observed by some to signify, and yet had nothing given them to quench their thirst, as follows:

[and] tread [their] winepresses, and suffer thirst;
after having gathered their grapes from their vines for them, they trod them in the winepresses, and made their wine, and yet would not allow them to drink of it to allay their thirst.


FOOTNOTES:

F17 (Mtrwv Nyb) "inter ordines", Mercerus, Piscator, Cocceius; so Sephorno, and some in Eliae Tishbi, p. 241.
F18 (wryhuy) "meridiati sunt", V. L. so Bolducius, Schultens.

Job 24:11 In-Context

9 They take violently away From the breast the orphan, And on the poor they lay a pledge.
10 Naked, they have gone without clothing, And hungry -- have taken away a sheaf.
11 Between their walls they make oil, Wine-presses they have trodden, and thirst.
12 Because of enmity men do groan, And the soul of pierced ones doth cry, And God doth not give praise.
13 They have been among rebellious ones of light, They have not discerned His ways, Nor abode in His paths.
Young's Literal Translation is in the public domain.