Job 24:1-12

Job: Judgment for the Wicked

1 “Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment? Why may those who know Him never see His days?

2 Men move boundary stones; they pasture stolen flocks.

3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless and take the widow’s ox in pledge.

4 They push the needy off the road and force all the poor of the land into hiding.

5 Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go to work foraging for food; the wasteland is food for their children.

6 They gather fodder in the fields and glean the vineyards of the wicked.

7 Without clothing, they spend the night naked; they have no covering against the cold.

8 Drenched by mountain rains, they huddle against the rocks for want of shelter.

9 The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized for a debt.

10 Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.

11 They crush olives within their walls; they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.

12 From the city, men groan, and the souls of the wounded cry out, yet God charges no one with wrongdoing.

Job 24:1-12 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.