Job 24:5-15

5 Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert the poor^[a]1go out to their toil, ²seeking game; the wasteland yields food for their children.

6 They gather their^[b] fodder in the field, and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man.

7 They ³lie all night naked, without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.

8 They are wet with the rain of the mountains and ⁴cling to the rock for lack of shelter.

9 (There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast, and they take a pledge against the poor.)

10 They go about naked, without clothing; hungry, they ⁵carry the sheaves;

11 among the olive rows of the wicked^[c] they make oil; they tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.

12 From out of the city the dying groan, and the soul of ⁶the wounded cries for help; yet God charges no one with ⁷wrong.

13 "There are those who rebel ⁸against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways, and do not stay in its paths.

14 The murderer rises before it is light, that he ⁹may kill the poor and needy, and in the night he is like a thief.

15 The eye of the adulterer also waits for ¹⁰the twilight, saying, 'No ¹¹eye will see me'; and he veils his face.

Job 24:5-15 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.

Cross References

• 1. Psalms 104:23
• 2. Psalms 104:21
• 3. [Exodus 22:26, 27; Deuteronomy 24:12, 13]
• 4. Lamentations 4:5
• 5. [2 Timothy 2:6; James 5:4]
• 6. Jeremiah 51:52; Ezekiel 30:24
• 7. Job 1:22
• 8. John 3:19, 20
• 9. [Psalms 10:8]
• 10. Proverbs 7:9
• 11. Psalms 10:11

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew they
• [b]. Hebrew his
• [c]. Hebrew their olive rows