Job 24:6-16

6 They gather their fodder in the field and glean the vineyards of the wicked.
7 Without clothing, they spend the night naked, having no covering against the cold.[a]
8 Drenched by mountain rains, they huddle against[b] the rocks, shelterless.
9 The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized as collateral.[c][d]
10 Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry sheaves but go hungry.[e]
11 They crush olives in their presses;[f] they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.[g]
12 From the city, men[h] groan; the mortally wounded cry for help, yet God pays no attention to this crime.[i]
13 The wicked are those who rebel against the light. They do not recognize its ways or stay on its paths.
14 The murderer rises at dawn to kill the poor and needy, and by night he becomes a thief.
15 The adulterer's eye watches for twilight, thinking: No eye will see me, he covers [his] face.
16 In the dark they break[j] into houses; by day they lock themselves in,[k] never experiencing the light.[l]

Job 24:6-16 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.

Footnotes 12

  • [a]. Jb 22:6; 24:10; Ex 22:26-27
  • [b]. Lit they embrace
  • [c]. Text emended; MT reads breast; they seize collateral against the poor
  • [d]. Jb 20:19; Pr 22:22; Ezk 18:7
  • [e]. Jb 22:7; Lv 23:10-15; Dt 24:19
  • [f]. Lit olives between their rows
  • [g]. Dt 28:39; Isa 16:10; Mc 6:15
  • [h]. One Hb ms, Syr read the dying
  • [i]. Ps 18:41; 69:26
  • [j]. Lit dig
  • [k]. Lit they seal for themselves
  • [l]. Jn 3:19,20
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