Job 24:4-14

4 They push the needy off the road; All the poor of the land are forced to hide.

5 Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, They go out to their work, searching for food. The wilderness yields food for them and for their children.

6 They gather their fodder in the field And glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

7 They spend the night naked, without clothing, And have no covering in the cold.

8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains, And huddle around the rock for want of shelter.

9 "Some snatch the fatherless from the breast, And take a pledge from the poor.

10 They cause the poor to go naked, without clothing; And they take away the sheaves from the hungry.

11 They press out oil within their walls, And tread winepresses, yet suffer thirst.

12 The dying groan in the city, And the souls of the wounded cry out; Yet God does not charge them with wrong.

13 "There are those who rebel against the light; They do not know its ways Nor abide in its paths.

14 The murderer rises with the light; He kills the poor and needy; And in the night he is like a thief.

Job 24:4-14 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.