Job 24:1-12

Absence of justice

1 Why doesn't the Almighty establish times for punishment? Why can't those who know him see his days?

2 People move boundary stones, herd flocks they've stolen,

3 drive off an orphan's donkey, take a widow's ox as collateral,

4 thrust the poor out of the way, make the land's needy hide together.

5 They are like the wild donkeys in the desert; they go forth at dawn searching for prey; the wasteland is food for their young.

6 They gather their food in the field, glean in unproductive vineyards,

7 spend the night naked, unclothed, in the cold without a cover,

8 wet from mountain rains, with no refuge, huddled against a rock.

9 The orphan is stolen from the breast; the infant of the poor is taken as collateral.

10 The poor go around naked, without clothes, carry bundles of grain while hungry,

11 crush olives between millstones, tread winepresses, but remain thirsty.

12 From the city, the dying cry out; the throat of the mortally wounded screams, but God assigns no blame.

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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Heb lacks for punishment.
• [b]. Reading Heb we‘ul (infant) for we‘al (against)
• [c]. Heb uncertain