Job 24:10

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

Job 24:10 Meaning and Commentary

Job 24:10

They cause [him] to go naked without clothing
Having taken his raiment from him for a pledge, or refusing to give him his wages for his work, whereby he might procure clothes to cover him, but that being withheld, is obliged to go naked, or next to it:

and they take away the sheaf [from] the hungry;
the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "ears of corn", such as the poor man plucked as he walked through a corn field, in order to rub them in his hand, and eat of, as the disciples of Christ, with which the Pharisees were offended, ( Luke 6:1 ) ; and which, according to a law in Israel, was allowed to be done, ( Deuteronomy 23:25 ) ; but now so severe were these wicked men to these poor persons, that they took away from them such ears of corn: but it is more likely that this sheaf was what the poor had gleaned, and what they had been picking up ear by ear, and had bound up into a sheaf, in order to carry home and beat it out, and then grind the corn of it, and make a loaf of it to satisfy their hunger; but so cruel and hardhearted were these men, that they took it away from them, which they had been all, or the greatest part of the day, picking up; unless it can be thought there was a custom in Job's country, which was afterwards a law among the Jews, that if a sheaf was forgotten by the owner, and left in the field when he gathered in his corn, he was not to go back for it, and fetch it, but leave it to the poor, ( Deuteronomy 24:19 ) ; but these men would not suffer them to have it, but took it away from them; or the words may be rendered, as they are by some, "the hungry carry the sheaf" F16 that is, of their rich oppressive masters, who having reaped their fields for them, and bound up the corn in sheaves, carry it home for them; and yet they do not so much as give them food for their labour, or wages to purchase food to satisfy their; hunger, and so dealt with them worse than the oxen were, according to the Jewish law, which were not to be muzzled when they trod out the corn, but might eat of it, ( Deuteronomy 25:4 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F16 (rme wavn Myberw) "et famelici gestant manipulum", Tigurine version, Mercerus; so Schultens, Michaelis.

Job 24:10 In-Context

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.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.