Job 24:3-13

3 They take the orphan’s donkey and demand the widow’s ox as security for a loan.

4 The poor are pushed off the path; the needy must hide together for safety.

5 Like wild donkeys in the wilderness, the poor must spend all their time looking for food, searching even in the desert for food for their children.

6 They harvest a field they do not own, and they glean in the vineyards of the wicked.

7 All night they lie naked in the cold, without clothing or covering.

8 They are soaked by mountain showers, and they huddle against the rocks for want of a home.

9 “The wicked snatch a widow’s child from her breast, taking the baby as security for a loan.

10 The poor must go about naked, without any clothing. They harvest food for others while they themselves are starving.

11 They press out olive oil without being allowed to taste it, and they tread in the winepress as they suffer from thirst.

12 The groans of the dying rise from the city, and the wounded cry for help, yet God ignores their moaning.

13 “Wicked people rebel against the light. They refuse to acknowledge its ways or stay in its paths.

Job 24:3-13 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.