Job 24:2-12

2 Wicked people take other people's land; they steal flocks and take them to new pastures.

3 They chase away the orphan's donkey and take the widow's ox when she has no money.

4 They push needy people off the path; all the poor of the land hide from them.

5 The poor become like wild donkeys in the desert who go about their job of finding food. The desert gives them food for their children.

6 They gather hay and straw in the fields and pick up leftover grapes from the vineyard of the wicked.

7 They spend the night naked, because they have no clothes, nothing to cover themselves in the cold.

8 They are soaked from mountain rains and stay near the large rocks because they have no shelter.

9 The fatherless child is grabbed from its mother's breast; they take a poor mother's baby to pay for what she owes.

10 So the poor go around naked without any clothes; they carry bundles of grain but still go hungry;

11 they crush olives to get oil and grapes to get wine, but they still go thirsty.

12 Dying people groan in the city, and the injured cry out for help, but God accuses no one of doing wrong.

Job 24:2-12 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.