Job 24:9-19

9 The child without a father is forced from its mother's breast, and they take the young children of the poor for debt.

10 Others go about without clothing, and though they have no food, they get in the grain from the fields.

11 Between the lines of olive-trees they make oil; though they have no drink, they are crushing out the grapes.

12 From the town come sounds of pain from those who are near death, and the soul of the wounded is crying out for help; but God does not take note of their prayer.

13 Then there are those who are haters of the light, who have no knowledge of its ways, and do not go in them.

14 He who is purposing death gets up before day, so that he may put to death the poor and those in need.

15 And the man whose desire is for the wife of another is waiting for the evening, saying, No eye will see me; and he puts a cover on his face. And in the night the thief goes about;

16 In the dark he makes holes in the walls of houses: in the daytime they are shutting themselves up, they have no knowledge of the light.

17 For the middle of the night is as morning to them, they are not troubled by the fear of the dark.

18 They go quickly on the face of the waters; their heritage is cursed in the earth; the steps of the crusher of grapes are not turned to their vine-garden.

19 Snow waters become dry with the heat: so do sinners go down into the underworld.

Job 24:9-19 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.