Job 24:5-15

5 The poor are like wild donkeys in the desert. They have to go around looking for food. The dry and empty land provides the only food for their children.

6 The poor go to the fields and get a little grain. They gather up what is left in the vineyards of sinners.

7 The poor don't have any clothes. So they spend the night naked. They don't have anything to cover themselves in the cold.

8 They are soaked by mountain rains. They hug the rocks because they don't have anything to keep them warm.

9 Children whose fathers have died are torn away from their mothers. A poor person's baby is taken away to pay back what is owed.

10 The poor don't have any clothes. They go around naked. They carry bundles of grain, but they still go hungry.

11 They work very hard as they crush olives. They stomp on grapes in winepresses, but they are still thirsty.

12 The groans of those who are dying are heard from the city. Those who are wounded cry out for help. But God doesn't charge anyone with doing what is wrong.

13 "Some people hate it when daylight comes. In the daytime they never walk outside.

14 When daylight is gone, murderers get up. They kill poor people and those who are in need. In the night they sneak around like robbers.

15 Those who commit adultery wait until the sun goes down. They think, 'No one will see us.' They keep their faces hidden.

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.