Job 24:11

11 They press out olive oil between rows [of olive trees]. They stomp on grapes in wine vats, yet they are thirsty.

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 "[People] snatch the [nursing] orphan from a breast and take a poor woman's baby as security for a loan.
10 [That is why] the poor go around naked. They are hungry, yet they carry bundles of grain.
11 They press out olive oil between rows [of olive trees]. They stomp on grapes in wine vats, yet they are thirsty.
12 Those dying in the city groan. Wounded people cry for help, but God pays no attention to their prayers.
13 "Such people are among those who rebel against the light. They are not acquainted with its ways. They do not stay on its paths.
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