Job 24 commentary

JOB 24 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
1 “Why does the Almighty not set times for
judgment?
Why must those who know him look in vain for
such days?
BAR ES, "Why, seeing times are not hidden froth the Almighty - Dr. Good
renders this,
“Wherefore are not doomdays kept by the Almighty.
So that his offenders may eye his periods?”
Dr. Noyes:
“Why are not times of punishment reserved by the Almighty.
And why do not they, who regard him, see his judgments?”
Jerome, “Times are not hidden from the Almighty; but they who know him are
ignorant of his days.” The Septuagint, “But why have set times - ᆤραι hōrai, escaped the
notice - ᅞλαθον elathon - of the Almighty, and the wicked transgressed all bounds? The
word ‫עתים‬ ‛êthıym, here translated “times,” is rendered by the Chaldee (‫,)עדניא‬ “set
times,” times appointed for an assembly or a trial, beforehand designated for any
purpose. The Hebrew word properly means, set time, fit and proper times; and in the
plural, as used here, means “seasons,” Est_1:13; 1Ch_12:32; and then vicissitudes of
things, fortunes, destinies; Psa_31:16; 1Ch_29:30. Here it means, probably, the
vicissitudes of things, or what actually occurs. All changes are known to God. He sees
good and bad times; he sees the changes that take place among people. And since he sees
all this, Job asks, with concern, Why is it that God does not come forth to deal with
people according to their true character? That this was the fact, he proceeds to show
further in illustration of the position which he had maintained in Job 21 by specifying a
number of additional cases where the wicked undeniably prospered. It was this which
perplexed him so much, for he did not doubt that their conduct was clearly known to
God. If their conduct had been unknown to God, it would not have been a matter of
surprise that they should go unpunished. But since all their ways were clearly seen by
him, it might well excite inquiry why they were permitted thus to prosper. “He” believed
that they were reserved to a future day of wrath, Job_21:30; Job_24:23-24. They would
be punished in due time, but it was not a fact as his friends alleged, that they were

punished in this life according to their deeds.
Do they that know him? - His true friends; the pious.
Not see his days - The days of his wrath, or the day when he punishes the wicked. Why
are they not permitted to see him come forth to take vengeance on his foes? The phrase
“his days” means the days when God would come forth to punish his enemies. They are
called “his days,” because at that time God would be the prominent object that would
excite attention. They would be days when he would manifest himself in a manner so
remarkable as to characterize the period. Thus, the day of judgment is called the day “of
the Son of Man,” or “his day” Luk_17:24, because at that time the Lord Jesus will be the
prominent and glorious object that shall give character to the day. The “question” here
seems to have been asked by Job mainly to call attention to “the fact” which he proceeds
to illustrate. The fact was undeniable. Job did “not” maintain, as Eliphaz had charged on
him Job_22:12-14, that the reason why God did not punish them was, that he could not
see their deeds. He admitted most fully that God did see them, and understood all that
they did. In this they were agreed. Since this was so, the question was why the wicked
were spared, and lived in prosperity. The fact that it was so, Job affirms. The “reason”
why it was so, was the subject of inquiry now. This was perplexing, and Job could solve it
only by referring to what was to come hereafter.
CLARKE, "Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty - Mr. Good
translates: “Wherefore are not doomsdays kept by the Almighty, so that his offenders
may eye their periods?” Doomsdays are here used in the same sense as term times; and
the wish is, that God would appoint such times that the falsely accused might look
forward to them with comfort; knowing that, on their arrival, they should have a fair
hearing, and their innocence be publicly declared; and their detractors, and the unjust in
general, meet with their deserts. But God reserves the knowledge of these things to
himself. “The holy patriarch,” says Mr. Good, “has uniformly admitted that in the
aggregate scale of Providence the just are rewarded and the wicked punished for their
respective deeds, in some period or other of their lives. But he has contended in various
places, and especially in Job_21:7-13, that the exceptions to this general rule are
numerous: so numerous, as to be sufficient to render the whole scheme of providential
interposition perfectly mysterious and incomprehensible, Job_23:8-12; so in the
passage before us: if the retribution ye speak of be universal, and which I am ready to
admit to a certain extent to be true and unquestionable, I not only ask, Why do the just
ever suffer in the midst of their righteousness? but, Why do not the wicked see such
retribution displayed before their eyes by stated judgments, so that they may at one and
the same time know and tremble?”
GILL, "Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty,.... Which seems
to be an inference deduced from what he had said in Job_23:14; that since all things are
appointed by God, and his appointments are punctually performed by him, the times of
his carrying his purposes and decrees into execution cannot be hidden from him; for, as
he has determined what shall be done, he has determined the time before appointed for
the doing of them; as there is a purpose for everything under the heavens, there is a time
set for the execution of that purpose, which must be known unto God that has fixed it;
for as all his works are known to him from the beginning, or from eternity, the times
when those works should be wrought must also be known to him. The Vulgate Latin,
version reduces the words to a categorical proposition, "times are not hidden from the

Almighty"; either temporal things, as Sephorno interprets it, things done in time, or the
times of doing those things; no sort of time is hid from God; time respecting the world in
general, its beginning, duration, and end; all seasons in it, day and night, summer and
winter, seedtime and harvest, which are all fixed and settled by him; the several distinct
ages and periods of time, into which it has been divided; the old and new world, the legal
and Gospel dispensation, the various generations in it; the four great monarchies of the
world, their rise, and duration, and end, with all other lesser kingdoms and states; time
respecting the inhabitants of the world, their coming into and passing out of it in
successive generations, the time of their birth, and of their death, and of adversity and
prosperity, which interchangeably take place during their abode in it; and particularly
the people of God, the time of their redemption by Christ, of their conversion by the
grace of God, and all their times of darkness, desertion, temptation, and afflictions, and
of peace, joy, and comfort; time, past and future, respecting the church of God, and the
state of it, and all things relative thereunto; and the times of Israel's affliction in a land
not theirs, four hundred years, and of their seventy years' captivity in Babylon, were not
hidden from the Almighty, but foretold by him; the suffering times of the church under
the New Testament; the ten persecutions of it by the Roman emperors; the flight and
nourishment of it in the wilderness for a time, and times, and half a time; the treading
down of the holy city forty two months; the witnesses prophesying: in sackcloth 1260
days; the killing of them, and their bodies lying unburied three days and a half, and then
rising; the reign of antichrist forty two months, at the end of which antichristian time
will be no more; the time of Christ's coming to judgment, which is a day appointed,
though unknown to men and angels, and the reign of Christ on earth for a thousand
years; all these times are not hidden from, but known to the Almighty, even all time,
past, present, and to come, and all things that have been, are, or shall be done therein.
Several Jewish commentators (c) interpret these words as an expostulation or wish,
"why are not times hidden?" &c. if they were, I should not wonder at it that those that
knew him do not know what shall be; but he knows the times and days in which wicked
men will do wickedness, why is he silent? Mr. Broughton, and others (d), render them,
"why are not", or "why should not times be hidden by the Almighty?" that is, be hidden
in his own breast from men, as they are; for the times and seasons it is not for man to
know, which God has put in his own power, Act_1:6; as the times of future troubles, of a
man's death, and the day of judgment; it is but right and fit, on many accounts, that they
should be hid by him from them; but others of later date translate the words perhaps
much better, "why are not certain stated times laid up", or "reserved by the Almighty"
(e)? that is, for punishing wicked men in this, life, as would be the case, Job suggests, if
it was true what his friends had asserted, that wicked men are always punished here: and
then upon this another question follows, why
do they that know him not see his days? that know him not merely by the light of
nature, but as revealed in Christ; and that have not a mere knowledge of him, but a
spiritual and experimental one; who know him so as to love him, believe in him, fear,
serve, and worship him; and who have a greater knowledge of him than others may have,
and have an intimate acquaintance and familiarity with him, are his bosom friends; and
if there are fixed times for punishing the wicked in this life, how comes it to pass that
these friends of God, to whom he reveals his secrets, cannot see and observe any such
days and times of his as these? but, on the contrary, observe, even to the stumbling of
the greatest saints, that the wicked prosper and increase in riches. Job seems to refer to
what Eliphaz had said, Job_22:19; which he here tacitly denies, and proves the contrary
by various instances, as follows.

HE RY, "Job's friends had been very positive in it that they should soon see the fall
of wicked people, how much soever they might prosper for a while. By no means, says
Job; though times are not hidden from the Almighty, yet those that know him do not
presently see his day, Job_24:1. 1. He takes it for granted that times are not hidden from
the Almighty; past times are not hidden from his judgment (Ecc_3:15), present times are
not hidden from his providence (Mat_10:29), future times are not hidden from his
prescience, Act_15:18. God governs the world, and therefore we may be sure he takes
cognizance of it. Bad times are not hidden from him, though the bad men that make the
times bad say one to another, He has forsaken the earth, Psa_94:6, Psa_94:7. Every
man's times are in his hand, and under his eye, and therefore it is in his power to make
the times of wicked men in this world miserable. He foresees the time of every man's
death, and therefore, if wicked men die before they are punished for their wickedness,
we cannot say, “They escaped him by surprise;” he foresaw it, nay, he ordered it. Before
Job will enquire into the reasons of the prosperity of wicked men he asserts God's
omniscience, as one prophet, in a similar case, asserts his righteousness (Jer_12:1),
another his holiness (Hab_1:13), another his goodness to his own people, Psa_73:1.
General truths must be held fast, though we may find it difficult to reconcile them to
particular events. 2. He yet asserts that those who know him (that is, wise and good
people who are acquainted with him, and with whom his secret is) do not see his day, -
the day of his judging for them; this was the thing he complained of in his own case
(Job_23:8), that he could not see God appearing on his behalf to plead his cause, - the
day of his judging against open and notorious sinners, that is called his day, Psa_37:13.
We believe that day will come, but we do not see it, because it is future, and its presages
are secret. 3. Though this is a mystery of Providence, yet there is a reason for it, and we
shall shortly know why the judgment is deferred; even the wisest, and those who know
God best, do not yet see it. God will exercise their faith and patience, and excite their
prayers for the coming of his kingdom, for which they are to cry day and night to him,
Luk_18:7.
JAMISO , "Why is it that, seeing that the times of punishment (Eze_30:3; “time” in
the same sense) are not hidden from the Almighty, they who know Him (His true
worshippers, Job_18:21) do not see His days (of vengeance; Joe_1:15; 2Pe_3:10)? Or,
with Umbreit less simply, making the parallel clauses more nicely balanced, Why are not
times of punishment hoarded up (“laid up”; Job_21:19; appointed) by the Almighty?
that is, Why are they not so appointed as that man may now see them? as the second
clause shows. Job does not doubt that they are appointed: nay, he asserts it (Job_21:30);
what he wishes is that God would let all now see that it is so.
K&D 1-4, "The supposition that the text originally stood ‫י‬ ַ ַ ִ‫מ‬ ‫ים‬ ִ‫ע‬ ָ‫שׁ‬ ְ‫ֽר‬ ָ‫ל‬ ַ‫וּע‬ ַ‫מ‬ is natural;
but it is at once destroyed by the fact that Job_24:1 becomes thereby disproportionately
long, and yet cannot be divided into two lines of comparatively independent contents. In
fact, ‫לרשׁעים‬ is by no means absolutely necessary. The usage of the language assumes it,
according to which ‫ת‬ ֵ‫א‬ followed by the genitive signifies the point of time at which any
one's fate is decided. Isa_13:22; Jer_27:7; Eze_22:3; Eze_30:3; the period when
reckoning is made, or even the terminus ad quem, Ecc_9:12; and ywm followed by the
gen. of a man, the day of his end, Job_15:32; Job_18:20; Eze_21:30, and freq.; or with

‫,יהוה‬ the day when God's judgment is revealed, Joe_1:15, and freq. The boldness of poetic
language goes beyond this usage, by using ‫ים‬ ִ ִ‫ע‬ directly of the period of punishment, as is
almost universally acknowledged since Schultens' day, and ‫יו‬ ָ‫מ‬ָ‫י‬ dna ,y of God's days of
judgment or of vengeance;
(Note: On ‫,עתים‬ in the sense of times of retribution, Wetzstein compares the Arab.
‛idât, which signifies predetermined reward or punishment; moreover, ‫ת‬ ֵ‫ע‬ is derived
from ‫ת‬ ֶ‫ד‬ ֵ‫ע‬ (from ‫ד‬ ַ‫ע‬ָ‫,)ו‬ and ‫ים‬ ִ ִ‫ע‬ is equivalent to ‫ים‬ ִ ְ‫ד‬ ִ‫,ע‬ according to the same law of
assimilation, by which now-a-days they say ‫י‬ ִ ִ‫ל‬ instead of ‫י‬ ִ ְ‫ד‬ ִ‫ל‬ (one who is born on
the same day with me, from Arab. lidat, lida), and ‫י‬ ִ ִ‫ר‬ instead of ‫י‬ ִ ְ‫ד‬ ִ‫ר‬ (my drinking-
time), since the assimilation of the ‫ד‬ takes place everywhere where ‫ת‬ is pronounced.
The ‫ת‬ of the feminine termination in ‫,עתים‬ as in ‫שׁקתות‬ and the like, perhaps also in
‫בתים‬ (bâttim), is amalgamated with the root.)
and it is the less ambiguous, since ‫ן‬ ַ‫פ‬ ָ‫,צ‬ in the sense of the divine predetermination of
what is future, Job_15:20, especially of God's storing up merited punishment, Job_
21:19, is an acknowledged word of our poet. On ‫ן‬ ִ‫מ‬ with the passive, vid., Ew. §295, c
(where, however, Job_28:4 is erroneously cited in its favour); it is never more than
equivalent to ᅊπό, for to use ‫ן‬ ִ‫מ‬ directly as ᆓπό with the passive is admissible neither in
Hebrew nor in Arabic. ‫ידעו‬ (Keri ‫יו‬ ָ‫ע‬ ְ‫ּד‬‫י‬, for which the Targ. unsuitably reads ‫י‬ ַ‫ע‬ ְ‫ּד‬‫י‬) are, as in
Psa_36:11; Psa_87:4, comp. supra, Job_18:21, those who know God, not merely
superficially, but from experience of His ways, consequently those who are in fellowship
with Him. ‫זוּ‬ ָ‫ח‬ ‫ּא‬‫ל‬ is to be written with Zinnorith over the ‫,לא‬ and Mercha by the first
syllable of ‫.חזו‬ The Zinnorith necessitates the retreat of the tone of ‫חזו‬ to its first syllable,
as in ‫,כי־חרה‬ Psa_18:8 (Bär's Pslaterium, p. xiii.); for if ‫חזו‬ remained Milra, ‫לא‬ ought to be
connected with it by Makkeph, and consequently remain toneless (Psalter, ii. 507).
Next follows the description of the moral, abhorrence which, while the friends (Job_
22:19) maintain a divine retribution everywhere manifest, is painfully conscious of the
absence of any determination of the periods and days of judicial punishment. Fearlessly
and unpunished, the oppression of the helpless and defenceless, though deserving of a
curse, rages in every form. They remove the landmarks; comp. Deu_27:17, “Cursed is he
who removeth his neighbour's landmark” (‫יג‬ ִ ַ‫,מ‬ here once written with ‫,שׂ‬ while
otherwise ‫יג‬ ִ ִ‫ה‬ from ‫ג‬ ַ‫שׂ‬ָ‫נ‬ signifies assequi, on the other hand ‫יג‬ ִ ִ‫ה‬ from ‫סוּג‬ signifies
dimovere). They steal flocks, ‫עוּ‬ ְ‫ר‬ִ ַ‫,ו‬ i.e., they are so barefaced, that after they have stolen
them they pasture them openly. The ass of the orphans, the one that is their whole
possession, and their only beast for labour, they carry away as prey (‫ג‬ ַ‫ה‬ָ‫,נ‬ as e.g., Isa_
20:4); they distrain, i.e., take away with them as a pledge (on ‫ל‬ ַ‫ב‬ ָ‫,ח‬ to bind by a pledge,
obstringere, and also to take as a pledge, vid., on Job_22:6, and Köhler on Zec_11:7), the
yoke-ox of the widow (this is the exact meaning of ‫ּור‬‫שׁ‬, as of the Arab. thôr). They turn
the needy aside from the way which they are going, so that they are obliged to wander

hither and thither without home or right: the poor of the land are obliged to hide
themselves altogether. The Hiph. ‫ה‬ ָ ִ‫,ה‬ with ‫ים‬ִ‫ּונ‬‫י‬ ְ‫ב‬ ֶ‫א‬ as its obj., is used as in Amo_5:12;
there it is used of turning away from a right that belongs to them, here of turning out of
the way into trackless regions. ‫ּון‬‫י‬ ְ‫ב‬ ֶ‫א‬ (vid., on Job_29:16) here, as frequently, is the
parallel word with ‫ו‬ָ‫נ‬ ָ‫,ע‬ the humble one, the patient sufferer; instead of which the Keri is
‫י‬ִ‫נ‬ ָ‫,ע‬ the humbled, bowed down with suffering (vid., on Psa_9:13). ‫י־ארץ‬ֵ‫ו‬ְ‫נ‬ ַ‫ע‬ without any
Keri in Psa_76:10; Zep_2:3, and might less suitably appear here, where it is not so much
the moral attribute as the outward condition that is intended to be described. The Pual
‫אוּ‬ ְⅴ ֻ‫ח‬ describes that which they are forced to do.
The description of these unfortunate ones is now continued; and by a comparison with
Job_30:1-8, it is probable that aborigines who are turned out of their original
possessions and dwellings are intended (comp. Job_15:19, according to which the poet
takes his stand in an age in which the original relations of the races had been already
disturbed by the calamities of war and the incursions of aliens). If the central point of
the narrative lies in Haurân, or, more exactly, in the Nukra, it is natural, with Wetzstein,
to think of the Arab. 'hl 'l-wukr or ‛rb 'l-ᐓujr, i.e., the (perhaps Ituraean) “races of the
caves” in Trachonitis.
BE SO , ". Why, &c. — Job, having by his complaints, in the foregoing chapter,
given vent to his passion, and thereby gained some ease, breaks them off abruptly,
and now applies himself to a further discussion of the doctrinal controversy between
him and his friends, concerning the prosperity of wicked people. That many live at
ease, who yet are ungodly and profane, and despise all the exercises of devotion, he
had showed, chap. 21. ow he goes further, and shows that many who are
mischievous to mankind, and live in open defiance of all the laws of justice and
common honesty, yet thrive and succeed in their unrighteous practices; and we do
not see them reckoned with in this world. He first lays down his general proposition,
That the punishment of wicked people is not so visible and apparent as his friends
supposed, and then proves it by an induction of particulars. Why — How comes it
to pass; seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty — Seeing the fittest seasons
for every action, and particularly for the punishment of wicked men, are not
unknown to God: do they that know him — That love and obey him; not see his
days? — The times and seasons which he takes for the punishment of ungodly men;
which times are frequently called the days of the Lord, as Isaiah 2:12; Isaiah 13:6;
Jeremiah 46:10; Acts 2:20. Surely, if they were constant and fixed in this life, they
would not be unknown to good men, to whom God is wont to reveal his secrets. His
words may be paraphrased a little more at large, thus: To answer a little what you
have so often asserted: If punishments from God upon the wicked, in this world, are
so certain as you say, why do not they who are truly pious see them openly inflicted?
Surely it is most strange, that there are not some certain fixed times when God
arises publicly, and in the face of the whole world inflicts these deserved
punishments upon the wicked. Whereas, experience shows, that these visible
judgments are very rarely inflicted, and many true worshippers of God pass
through the world without ever seeing any thing of this kind. Heath renders the

verse, Why are not stated seasons set apart by the Almighty? And why do not those
who know him see his days? namely, of vengeance on the wicked.
COFFMA , "THE CO CLUSIO OF JOB'S EIGHTH ADDRESS
"Why are times not laid up by the Almighty?
And why do not they that know him see his days?"
In this verse, Job raises the question of why God does not establish set days (or
times) for judging men's conduct, and assigning rewards and punishment to men as
they may be deserved. Job here poses this question as an argument against Eliphaz'
notion that the wicked are invariably punished in this present life, and that the
righteous are invariably rewarded, propositions which Job has rejected and resisted
throughout the controversy as being absolutely contrary to the known facts of life.
As we have pointed out earlier, there are definite reasons WHY there must be
variations in the life patterns both of the wicked and of the righteous, making it an
impossibility to lay down set laws that it must always be either this way or that way
for either class of men. These reasons are: (1) God has given all men the freedom of
their will. (2) By reason of the Fall, Satan enjoys many powers as `the god of this
world." (3) God has cursed the ground (the earth) for Adam's sake, and from this
all kinds of natural disasters fall continually upon mankind. (4) "Time and chance
happeneth unto them all (all men)" (Ecclesiastes 9:11).
All of these things, to which there must also be added the uncertainty of chance
(luck), enter into the uncertainty and unpredictability of the life of any man, either
wicked or righteous. The result of this is spelled out in the scripture just cited. "The
race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches
to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill" (Ecclesiastes 9:11).
A SPECIAL OTE REGARDI G THIS CHAPTER
"In Job 24, we run into all kinds of problems. First, there are textual difficulties
that render many lines almost unintelligible. The translators have patched them up
to their satisfaction; but there is no unanimous agreement in the many solutions
offered. A number of verses are rejected and removed by different scholars; but
there's no agreement on any of this. The speech as a whole is incoherent; some of it
seems at variance with what Job has maintained all along. Some scholars, such as
Pope in the Anchor Bible have shuffled the verses around into a different order."[1]
This problem is related by some to the brevity of the speech by Bildad in this third
cycle, some supposing that what is here accredited to Job may, in fact have been
spoken by Bildad. These problems and uncertainties which continue to appear
throughout the last half of the text of Job are utterly beyond the scope of any ability
of this writer to solve them.

We shall proceed, therefore, as Andersen stated it and, "Be content with accepting
the text as it stands in our version, and to do the best we can to interpret it."[2]
COKE, "Job affirms, that wickedness often goes unpunished; but that there is a
secret judgment remaining for the wicked.
Before Christ 1645.
Job 24:1. Why, seeing times, &c.— Job, having obviated in the foregoing chapter
the charge of Eliphaz, as to a denial or disbelief of God's providence, goes on to
express his wishes, that God, in his providence, would make a more visible
distinction between the wicked and the righteous in this world; that thus good men
might not fall into such mistakes by censuring suffering innocence, Job 24:1. And,
whereas Eliphaz had compared him to the men of violence and oppression in the
antediluvian world, he recites a long list of the crimes of those persons, which had
justly drawn down the divine vengeance; placing it, as it were, in contrast with his
own character, which he had sketched in the foregoing chapter, Job 24:11-12
thereby shewing the defect of the comparison, and, as it were, defying them to
convict him of any of those crimes, Job 24:2-18. He concludes with shewing what,
according to their principles, ought to be the general course of Providence with
regard to wicked men, which, however, was notoriously not the case; and since it
was not, it was plain that he had proved his point: the falsity of their general maxim
was apparent; and their censure of him, merely for his sufferings, was a behaviour
by no means justifiable; Job 24:19 to the end. Heath.
Times—days— These terms are in the Hebrew judicial: the former expresses
seasons set apart for the public administration of justice; the latter seems rather to
denote the time of such judgments being put in execution. Heath renders the verse,
Why are not stated seasons set apart by the Almighty? And why do not those who
know him see his days? Houbigant gives it a different interpretation, which, indeed,
seems better to agree with the context: What is the reason why, when times have not
been hidden by the Almighty from men, they attend not to his day, which they
know? i.e. "Whence comes it to pass, that when God has not concealed the times or
changes of human affairs, men should still act so blameably; as if God had hidden in
perpetual darkness both things present and things future?"
ELLICOTT, "(1) Why, seeing times are not hidden.—Job, in this chapter, gives
utterance to this perplexity, as it arises, not from his own case only, but from a
survey of God’s dealings with the world generally. “Why is it,” he asks, “since times
and events are not hidden from the Almighty, that they who know Him—that is,
believe in and love Him—do not see His days?”—that is, His days of retribution and
judgment. Even those who love and serve God are as perplexed about His principles
of government as those who know Him not. It is to be observed that the position of
the second negative in the Authorised Version of this verse renders it highly

ambiguous to the majority of readers. This ambiguity would entirely disappear if we
read see not instead of “not see.”
EBC 1-4, "In chapter 24 there is a development of the reasoning contained in Job’s
reply to Zophar in the second colloquy, and there is also a closer examination of the
nature and results of evildoing than has yet been attempted. In the course of his
acute and careful discrimination Job allows something to his friends’ side of the
argument, but all the more emphasises the series of vivid touches by which the
prosperous tyrant is represented. He modifies to some extent his opinion previously
expressed that all goes well with the wicked. He finds that certain classes of
miscreants do come to confusion, and he separates these from the others, at the same
time separating himself beyond question from the oppressor on this side and the
murderer and adulterer on that. Accepting the limits of discussion chosen by the
friends he exhausts the matter between himself and them. By the distinctions now
made and the choice offered, Job arrests personal accusation, and of that we hear no
more.
Continuing the idea of a Divine assize which has governed his thought throughout
this reply, Job asks why it should not be held openly from time to time in the
world’s history.
"Why are times not set by the Almighty?
And why do not they who know Him see His days?"
Emerson says the world is full of judgment days; Job thinks it is not, but ought to
be. Passing from his own desire to have access to the bar of God and plead there, he
now thinks of an open court, a public vindication of God’s rule. The Great Assize is
never proclaimed. Ages go by; the Righteous One never appears. All things continue
as they were from the beginning of the creation. Men struggling, sinning, suffering,
doubt or deny the existence of a moral Ruler. They ask, Who ever saw this God? If
He exists, He is so separate from the world by His own choice that there is no need
to consider Him. In pride or in sorrow men raise the question. But no God means no
justice, no truth, no penetration of the real by the ideal; and thought cannot rest
there.
With great vigour and large knowledge of the world the writer makes Job point out
the facts of human violence and crime, of human condonation and punishment.
Look at the oppressors and those who cringe under them, the despots never brought
to justice, but on the contrary growing in power through the fear and misery of
their serfs. Already we have seen how perilous it is to speak falsely for God. ow we
see, on the other hand, that whoever speaks truly of the facts of human experience
prepares the way for a true knowledge of God. Those who have been looking in vain
for indications of Divine justice and grace are to learn that not in deliverance from
the poverty and trouble of this world but in some other way they must realise God’s
redemption. The writer of the book is seeking after that kingdom which is not meat

and drink nor long life and happiness, but righteousness and peace and joy in the
Holy Ghost.
Observe first, says Job, the base and cruel men who remove landmarks and claim as
their own a neighbour’s heritage, who drive into their pastures flocks that are not
theirs, who even take away the one ass of the fatherless and the one ox the widow
has for ploughing her scanty fields, who thus with a high hand overbear all the
defenceless people within their reach. Zophar had charged Job with similar crimes,
and no direct reply was given to the accusation. ow, speaking strongly of the
iniquity of such deeds, Job makes his accusers feel their injustice towards him.
There are men who do such things. I have seen them, wondered at them, been
amazed that they were not struck down by the hand of God. My distress is that I
cannot understand how to reconcile their immunity from punishment with my faith
in Him whom I have served and trusted as my Friend.
PARKER, "Moral Antiquity
Job 24
Here we have a wonderful portrayal of wickedness. Some men attach great
importance to antiquity: why should the theologian be excluded from that field of
interest and study? Literary men often have a passion for antiquity,—to discover a
new word, or to be able to discover possible relations of old words, makes them wild
with delight; to know that some book has been exhumed which only scholars can
read is indeed a festival to the truly literary mind. This love of antiquity operates in
various ways. Some men are fond of old coins. Half-crowns have been purchased by
numismatists for as much as fifty sovereigns. So old age has some advantages. We
must have antiquity. This love of antiquity shows itself sometimes in quite frivolous
ways; but, still, there it is. There are persons who write their names with two little
fs. They think it has quite a Plantagenet sort of look about it, not knowing that in
the antiquity which they all but adore men wrote two little f"s because they did not
know how to write a capital. What matter? There is an antiquity about it that is
quite soothing, and deeply satisfactory. Some persons like to trace their origin far
back into historical times; others are bold enough to go back as far even as Adam
and Eve; and there are others of another mental metal who are not content with that
origin, and who go immeasurably beyond it, sacrificing family pride with the most
abject humbleness. But what does it amount to, so long as there is the charm of
antiquity, the hoar of countless ages, the moss which only rocks could gather? Why,
then, should the theologian be excluded, let us ask again, from this field of inquiry,
so broad and charming?
The Book of Job is confessedly one of the most ancient books in all literature; it
cannot, therefore, fail to be interesting to know the character of wickedness as
drawn by so ancient a portrayer of manners and customs. Is wickedness the same
yesterday, today, and for ever? Did it begin quite innocently, so to say, and as it
were by incalculable accidents fall into evil behaviour? Is its evil reputation rather a

misfortune than a fault? Or was it always as bad as the devil could make it? Did it
start badly? Is it a hell-flower? Are its roots fed by forces that minister in perdition?
If some modern man had sketched the character of evil we should have said, History
is against him: if you search back into the far-away ages you will find that the
portraiture is overdrawn, it is an exaggeration amounting almost to an injustice.
Here, however, we have Job as a witness. As to the antiquity of this testimony, there
is no doubt amongst any body of intelligent men. It is something, therefore, to have a
worm-eaten document, the ink almost faded, and yet the letters quite traceable, so
that there can be no dispute as to what it really says. It comes to us with the
authority of thousands of years. Let us look at it a little.
Though the testimony is ancient, yet it is modern. See what wicked men did long
ago—
"Some remove the landmarks: they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.
They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow"s ox for a pledge.
They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together....
They reap every one his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked.
They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the
cold. They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for
want of shelter. They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the
poor" ( Job 24:2-9).
And so the evil testimony rolls on like a black and pestilent stream. In all our
development we keep closely to this line. We know it. We do not turn from this
portrait as from a caricature that shocks our sense of justice and truth; we read the
words as if we had written them. Who ever stands aghast at the delineation, and
protests in the name of human nature that such things are impossible to man? o
critic has ever done so; no etymologist has ever so changed the terms as to change
the reputation; no moralist has ever said that he could not read the delineation of
wickedness in the Book of Job without feeling that it was overwrought, untrue, and
unjust. Let us see what they did. "They drive away the ass of the fatherless." The
sting is in that last dreary word. They would not have ventured to drive away the
ass of those whose father was living, A beautiful word is the word "father." It has
been traced back to two little letters pronounced by sweet children now, and
sometimes unwisely smiled at or put down. The root of the word is pa. Let us be
etymologically correct. What does "father" mean? It does not signify mere descent
of a physiological kind, as father and Song of Solomon , but it signifies protector,
defender; it bears with it the meaning of might that can resist all assault, security
that will itself die before the thing secured can be violated. But in ancient times
wicked men drove away the ass of the fatherless: the protector was gone, so the
property must follow; there was no strong man to stand in the front, and say, o:
not until you have overthrown me can you touch that which belongs to my children.
The great hedge of security was broken down, and strong wicked men had rushed in
upon the defenceless, and wrought havoc amongst those whose father was dead. Is
that done now? Are any liberties taken now with the fatherless? Has a child to pay
for orphanage? Has the devil changed his character? Then again—"They turn the

needy out of the way." It is always the needy man who has to suffer: he cannot
conduct a long fight; he cannot run a long race; his poverty always comes to stop
him, entangle him, and otherwise render him a prey to those who are rich and
proud. This miracle of poverty, this eternal mystery of want,—what is it? We cannot
be lectured out of it, economised out of it, scientifically conducted out of it; there
stands the ghastly spectre, age after age, an apparently immovable and
indestructible presence. A man may be wise, but he suffers through his want of
means; he may have genius to plan a bridge that should span a broad river, but he
has no money with which to dig foundations and throw the arch across the running
flood. A poor man may have books in his head, whole libraries of thought and
poetry, vision and dream that would bless the world; but the publisher politely, time
permitting, shows him to the door because he cannot pay for paper and print. The
needy man must have his day. Surely there will come a time when he will be able to
stand up and state his cause, and plead it, and show that he could have done greater
things in the world but for his poverty. Is any advantage taken of the needy now?
Are they all spoken to with courteous civility? Do men move to them as to equals?
Are they invited to the feast? When thou makest a feast, who are thy guests, thou
Christian man? Is there boundless room outside, in the snow of the winter and the
floods of the autumn, for the needy, and must they make their bed in the morass and
cling to the rock for shelter? Has the Ethiopian changed his skin? Is wickedness the
same now as it was in ancient days? Let facts bear witness. There is no originality in
wickedness; in substance it is the same yesterday, today, and for ever. The Bible has
named every sin. Invention is dead; novelty is impossible; you cannot originate a
new sin. If there is one man above another, prince of the philologists of the day, it is
Professor Max Müller. He says that language as to its root and core has never
changed. Whoever the first speaker was, we are speaking his language now. Say
Adam was our ancestor in speech; then, says the Professor, we are speaking Adam"s
language now. Say that we trace our language back to Shem, Ham, and Japheth;
then we are speaking their language at this day. There is no novelty in the roots of
the language. Declensions, conjugations, variations, accidental changes—many,
showing themselves fruitfully in all advancing civilisation; but the root is the same;
there is no substantial novelty. You may have thrust the accent forward or
backward; you may have added syllables; you may have twisted words, and
changed their momentary colour or their passing value: but as to the root of the
language, he who spoke first speaks now. There is a great moral in that philological
lesson. The core of wickedness never changes. We can invent new accidents, new
circumstances which endure but for a moment, we are cleverer in secondary
matters; but we cannot invent a new sin, as to its root and core and plasmic
meaning; these you will find in the Bible, and when the Bible reports them, it does
not appear to be making a new language, but simply to be taking down a speech
which filled the air even in the remotest days of biblical antiquity. It is something to
know, therefore, that we have testimony to go upon that is irrefragable. We are not
leaning to broken evidence, or to a chain of events in which there are faulty links;
every link is faultless, strong, distinct, in its right place; so that he who would rise
now and make an impeachment against wickedness has evidence enough: if he fail,
blame his ineloquent tongue, and do not charge the failure upon want of proof.

How noticeable it is that crime has from the beginning been perpetrated by men
from whom better things might have been expected! Take critical notice of this one
fact, that the crimes which are set down here are crimes which only rich men could
have committed. Such a fact is not to be passed by lightly. Only the strong men of
the time could have removed the landmark, or taken away violently the flocks, or
turned the needy out of the way, and driven the poor of the earth to huddle in some
cold and barren obscurity. Let that fact always be remembered in speaking about
the crimes of any civilisation. The greatest crimes of the world have been done by
the strong, the rich, and the proud. That these crimes would have been done by the
weak and the poor and the abject had circumstances been different is perfectly
indisputable; the question is one of human nature and not of accidental
circumstances. Is this true today? Are our rich men all refuges to which the poor
may flee with hope of asylum? Are our strong men always alert, self-surrendering,
never considering themselves when the cause of oppression is to be treated, and
when those who would assail liberty make their boastful voices heard? Can we
gather ourselves together in sacred counsel and say, Whatever happens our rich
men will be at the front, and our strong men; all the men who lead us by social
status, and ought to lead us by generous example, will be in the van, so that before
any of us who are blind, halt, maimed, can be touched, all our foremost men must be
mowed down by the scythe of the enemy. Has wickedness changed its character?
How several popular fallacies fall before such testimony as is to be found in these
chapters,—for example, such a fallacy as that good circumstances make good
character. Give a man plenty of wealth, give him flock and herds, give him ample
estates, and he will be good; he will make his fields churches, he will make his piles
of gold altars, at which he will fall, that he may there offer praise to the Giver of
every good gift: men would be better if they were richer, stronger. That is a deadly
sophism. Look at the Bible for proof to the contrary, and at the Bible not as a
professedly theological book but as a literary history, as something written by the
pen of Prayer of Manasseh , no matter who that man was as to his religious
relations. That such wickedness as this which is detailed in the Book of Job could be
dreamed, and then could be published without the author being torn to pieces by an
outraged public, is a fact to be reckoned with in all this historical estimate. Then
there is the fallacy that poverty and ill-behaviour always go together. There again
the poor man is at a great disadvantage. It is supposed that if a man cannot read
and write, therefore he must be vicious. Young reformers arise, and say, Put a
schoolhouse at the corner of every street, and then the magistrate will have nothing
to do. It is a misrepresentation of the poor. The rich man can do more mischief by
one inscription of his pen than all the little thieves of a city can do in seven years.
But how we spring at the poor man when he does anything wrong, how we hale him
before the Judges , and how we suppose that because his coat is torn therefore his
character is bad. It is not so. The men who have most intellect and least morality can
do most harm in the world. Then there is the sophism that justice is a natural
instinct. It may be said to us, who are religious moralists, Trust the justice of
humanity: man knows right from wrong; natural instinct will guide him: let a man
yield to his instincts, and you will have no oppression of the poor, no driving of the
needy into desert places, no removal of the landmarks: justice is a natural instinct;

trust it. It may be a natural instinct, but it has been greatly depraved. Who has
known an instance in which it has stood well to the front without having a
background sufficiently mysterious to be designated religious? o, not until he came
who touched the sphere of motive, the region of spiritual thought, were men really
just to one another. Even those who profess his name and pray at his cross often fail
now, but what would they have done but for such association with his kingdom and
such sacrifice at the tree on which he died! We have no justice. If we ever had it we
have lost, so to say, its very instinct and use. We need to be recovered from the error
of our ways. Our very morality may have been an arrangement, an investment, a
new game in doing the work of life. To be real we must be born again; to be truly
just we must adjust our relations with God and to God. o man can love his
neighbour as himself until he loves God with all his heart and soul and mind and
strength. Prosperity divorced from morality is the curse of any age and people.
Riches are only blessings when they are held by the hand of justice and controlled
by the spirit of benevolence.
Here, then, is the character of wickedness. An old character. Who will adopt it?
Who will wear these ancient clothes? Come, ye who are fond of antiquity; you like
old hoary time: who will adopt this moral antiquity, and wear it, and be proud of it?
Who will set this cap upon his head, and say, Behold me, venerable in
unrighteousness? Is there any man who will voluntarily take up this character and
say it is his? Do we not rather seem to read it as an old piece of literature, a very
vivid and graphic story, with which, however, we would have no connection, further
than a mere perusal of the dreary tale? When the wicked man plays his evil pranks,
let him know what his character is; it is not for him to write it—history has
undertaken that work for him: every line of his character is already written, and he
cannot change it. Why, as we have just seen, we cannot change a word radically and
substantially: how then can we change a moral act? In law the sound rule Isaiah ,
that which was bad at the beginning is bad through all the process, and in theology
and morals the same law holds good. Wickedness cannot change itself, cannot invent
for itself a new speech or a new hypocrisy; from the beginning the father of the
wicked was a liar and a murderer. A very broad and true saying that which is found
on the highest authority in the Book of God: from the beginning he was a murderer:
he could not become a murderer; he was at the beginning, in his very Genesis , in his
very protoplasm, a Prayer of Manasseh -slayer, an enemy of human life. Behold the
chivalry of wicked men, the bravery, the generous civility, the signature of
heaven,—this, as recorded in history, is what they are and what they have done! The
Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nor the leper his spots, and if ever this wickedness
is to be rubbed out it must be by the blood—the life—of God with us. Can we
overturn old history in one day? Is all this ancient stream to be cleansed out of
human history by some majestic waving of the hand on the part of some
inexperienced or adventurous reformer? Why dwell upon this iniquity, upon the
blackness and the depth of this horrid stream? To show that the gospel spreads
itself over the whole occasion, and comes to it clothed with the almightiness of God.
Blessed be God, if we speak of the antiquity of sin we can also speak of the antiquity
of grace: where sin abounded grace did much more abound, even in this matter of
antiquity. We know that antiquity, and its value; we are not about to dispute it; old

age must always be spoken of with carefulness, and sometimes it may prove itself to
be worthy of honour: therefore, make it a question of antiquity, and how well the
gospel stands! Does sin abound in antiquity? Grace aboundeth much more. How can
that be proved? Because the Lamb was slain from before the foundation of the
world. He died in the unreckoned eternity. He foresaw all the evil. He anticipated it.
The cross was a historical event, but the sacrifice was old as eternity—as venerable
as unbeginning time.
GUZIK 1-8, "a. Since times are not hidden from the Almighty, why do those who
know Him see not His days? The sense of this difficult verse seems to be, “Since God
knows and will judge everything, why are the godly kept in the dark about His
ways?” This had special application to the question of why God allows the seeming
prosperity of the wicked, discussed in the following verses.
i. The IV translates this verse, Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment?
Why must those who know him look in vain for such days? The ew Living
Translation has, Why doesn't the Almighty open the court and bring judgment?
Why must the godly wait for him in vain?
ii. The first verse of this chapter is not the only difficult portion. “In chapter 24 we
run into all kinds of problems. First there are textual difficulties, which render
many lines almost unintelligible. . . . Secondly, the speech as a whole seems
incoherent to many readers. . . . Thirdly, chapter 24 is said to express sentiments
that Job could never have uttered. They would sound better on the lips of his
friends.” (Andersen)
b. Some remove landmarks . . . they take the widow’s ox as a pledge . . . all the poor
of the land are forced to hide: Here Job described the mostly financial sins of the
wicked, rooted in greed and cruelty. In Job 22:5-11 Eliphaz said that Job’s calamity
came upon him because he acted this way towards others, and his riches were
therefore gained by greed and wickedness. Job agreed with Eliphaz that this is how
wicked people act, without agreeing with him that he himself acted this way.
i. “The law of Moses denounces curses on those who remove their neighbours'
landmarks. See Deuteronomy 19:14; Deuteronomy 27:17.” (Clarke)
ii. “Here you see the rich landowner removing his neighbour’s landmark, curtailing
by fraud, in a hedgeless unfenced land, the narrow possessions of his poorer
countrymen. Cursed, you remember the solemn words, cursed be he that removeth
his neighbour’s landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen! But Job sees no curse
fall!” (Bradley)
PULPIT, "The general subject of this chapter is the prosperity of the wicked, whose
proceedings and their results are traced out in detail (Job 24:2-24). A single note of
perplexity (Job 24:1) forms a sufficient introduction; and a single note of challenge a

sufficient epilogue (Job 24:25).
Job 24:1
Why, seeing times are not hidden from the almighty. By "times" seem to be meant
God's special periods of exhibiting himself in action as the moral Governor of the
world, vindicating the righteous, and taking vengeance upon sinners. Such "times"
are frequently spoken of in the prophetical Scriptures as "days of the Lord" (see
Isaiah 2:12; Isaiah 3:18; Isaiah 4:1; Isaiah 13:6, Isaiah 13:9; Joel 1:15; Joel 2:1, Joel
2:11; Obadiah 1:15; Zephaniah 1:7, Zephaniah 1:14, etc.). They are, of course, "not
hidden" from him, seeing that it is he who determines on them beforehand, and,
when their fixed date is come, makes them special "days," or "times," different
from all others. Do they who know him not see his days? i.e. why are even they, who
know and serve God, kept in the dark as to these "times," so that they do not
foresee them or know when they are coming? This is to Job a great perplexity.
BI 1-25, "Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty.
Great crimes not always followed by great punishment in this life
I. Great crimes have prevailed on the earth from the earliest times. Amongst the crimes
specified in this chapter there is—
1. Theft. There were those who stole from others their lands and flocks, and robbed
the widow and orphan of their food and clothing (Job_24:2-8). There is—
2. Cruelty. “They plucked the fatherless from the breast,” made “men groan out of
the city.” There is—
3. Murder. “The murderer, rising with the light, killeth the poor and needy.” There
is—
4. Adultery. “The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight,” etc.
The fact that these crimes prevailed in Job’s land and times implies—
1. That in those distant scenes and times the same standard of morals existed that we
have. They esteemed theft, cruelty, murder, and adultery wrong; so do we.
2. That in those distant scenes and times men had the same sinful propensities as
they have now.
II. That although the great God is cognisant of those crimes He does not always visit
them with punishment in this life. Job begins with the question, “Why, seeing times are
not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know Him not see His days?” The meaning
is, Why, since crimes are not hidden from the Almighty, do not His friends see His
judgments? He shows that these great criminals fare as well here, both in life and death,
as others. Why is this? Not because the Almighty is ignorant of their crimes, or because
their crimes are not abhorrent to His nature. Whatever the cause, the fact is undeniable;
and this fact Job brings out here to refute the doctrine of his friends, namely, that great
suffering implies great crime. (Homilist.)

Consideration for others
“I would rather be a year or two longer in effecting my purposes than reach them by
trampling on men’s hearts and hearths.” (J. Ruskin.)
2 There are those who move boundary stones;
they pasture flocks they have stolen.
BAR ES, "Some remove the land-marks - Landmarks are pillars or stones set
up to mark the boundaries of a farm. To remove them, by carrying them on to the land of
another, was an act of dishonesty and robbery - since it was only by marks that the
extent of a man’s property could be known. Fences were uncommon; the art of surveying
was not well understood, and deeds describing land were probably unknown also, and
their whole dependence, therefore, was on the stones that were erected to mark the
boundaries of a lot or farm. As it was not difficult to remove them, it became a matter of
special importance to guard against it, and to make it a crime of magnitude. Accordingly,
it was forbidden in the strictest manner in the law of Moses. “Cursed be he that
removeth his neighbor’s land-mark;” Deu_27:17; compare Deu_19:14; Pro_22:28; Pro_
23:10.
And feed thereof - Margin, “or, them.” The margin is correct. The meaning is, that
they drive off the flocks of others, and “pasture” them; that is, they are at no pains to
conceal what they do, but mingle them with their own herds, and feed them as if they
were their own. If they drove them away to kill, and removed them wholly from view, it
would be less shameful than to keep and claim them as their own, and to make the
robbery so public.
CLARKE, "Some remove the landmarks - Stones or posts were originally set up
to ascertain the bounds of particular estates: and this was necessary in open countries,
before hedges and fences were formed. Wicked and covetous men often removed the
landmarks or termini, and set them in on their neighbors’ ground, that, by contracting
their boundaries, they might enlarge their own. The law of Moses denounces curses on
those who remove their neighbors’ landmarks. See Deu_19:14; Deu_27:17, and the note
on the former place, where the subject is considered at large.
They violently take away flocks, and feed thereof - Mr. Good translates ‫ירעו‬
yiru, they destroy, deriving the word, not from ‫רעה‬ raah, to feed, but from ‫רע‬ ra, to rend,
to destroy. The Septuagint had read ‫רעה‬ roch, a shepherd; and therefore have translated
ποιµνιον συν ποιµενι ᅋρπασαντες, “violently carrying off both the flock and the shepherd.”

GILL, "Some remove the landmarks,.... Anciently set to distinguish one man's land
from another, to secure property, and preserve from encroachments; but some were so
wicked as either secretly in the night to remove them, or openly to do it, having power on
their side, pretending they were wrongly located; this was not only prohibited by the law
of God, and pronounced an accursed thing, Deu_19:14; but was reckoned so before the
law was given, being known to be such by the light of nature, as what was now, and here
condemned, was before that law was in being; and so we find that this was accounted an
execrable thing among the Heathens, who had a deity they called Jupiter Terminalis,
who was appointed over bounds and landmarks; so Numa Pompilius appointed stones
to be set as bounds to everyone's lands, and dedicated them to Jupiter Terminalis, and
ordered that those that removed them should be slain as sacrilegious persons, and they
and their oxen devoted to destruction (f): some render it, "they touch the landmarks"
(g), as if to touch them was unlawful, and therefore much more to remove them:
they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof; not content with a sheep or a
lamb, they took away whole flocks, and that by force and violence, openly and publicly,
and slew them, and fed on them; or else took them and put them into their own grounds,
or such as they had got by encroachments from others, where they fed them without any
fear of men; which shows the effrontery and impudence of them.
HE RY, "For the proof of this, that wicked people prosper, Job specifies two sorts of
unrighteous ones, whom all the world saw thriving in their iniquity: -
I. Tyrants, and those that do wrong under pretence of law and authority. It is a
melancholy sight which has often been seen under the sun, wickedness in the place of
judgment (Ecc_3:16), the unregarded tears of the oppressed, while on the side of the
oppressors there was power (Ecc_4:1), the violent perverting of justice and judgment,
Ecc_5:8. 1. They disseize their neighbours of their real estates, which came to them by
descent from their ancestors. They remove the land-marks, under pretence that they
were misplaced (Job_24:2), and so they encroach upon their neighbours' rights and
think they effectually secure that to their posterity which they have got wrongfully, by
making that to be an evidence for them which should have been an evidence for the
rightful owner. This was forbidden by the law of Moses (Deu_19:14), under a curse,
Deu_27:17. Forging or destroying deeds is now a crime equivalent to this. 2. They
dispossess them of their personal estates, under colour of justice. They violently take
away flocks, pretending they are forfeited, and feed thereof; as the rich man took the
poor man's ewe lamb, 2Sa_12:4. If a poor fatherless child has but an ass of his own to get
a little money with, they find some colour or other to take it away, because the owner is
not able to contest with them. It is all one if a widow has but an ox for what little
husbandry she has; under pretence of distraining for some small debt, or arrears of rent,
this ox shall be taken for a pledge, though perhaps it is the widow's all. God has taken it
among the titles of his honour to be a Father of the fatherless and a judge of the
widows; and therefore those will not be reckoned his friends that do not to their utmost
protect and help them; but those he will certainly reckon with as his enemies that vex
and oppress them. 3. They take all occasions to offer personal abuses to them, Job_24:4.
They will mislead them if they can when they meet them on the high-way, so that the
poor and needy are forced to hide themselves from them, having no other way to secure
themselves from them. They love in their hearts to banter people, and to make fools of

them, and do them a mischief if they can, especially to triumph over poor people, whom
they turn out of the way of getting relief, threaten to punish them as vagabonds, and so
force them to abscond, and laugh at them when they have done. Some understand those
barbarous actions (Job_24:9, Job_24:10) to be done by those oppressors that pretend
law for what they do: They pluck the fatherless from the breast; that is, having made
poor infants fatherless, they make them motherless too; having taken away the father's
life, they break the mother's heart, and so starve the children and leave them to perish.
Pharaoh and Herod plucked children from the breast to the sword; and we read of
children brought forth to the murderers, Hos_9:13. Those are inhuman murderers
indeed that can with so much pleasure suck innocent blood. They take a pledge of the
poor, and so they rob the spital; nay, they take the poor themselves for a pledge (as some
read it), and probably it was under this pretence that they plucked the fatherless from
the breast, distraining them for slaves, as Neh_5:5. Cruelty to the poor is great
wickedness and cries aloud for vengeance. Those who show no mercy to such as lie at
their mercy shall themselves have judgment without mercy. Another instance of their
barbarous treatment of those they have advantage against is that they take from them
even their necessary food and raiment; they squeeze them so with their extortion that
they cause them to go naked without clothing (Job_24:10) and so catch their death. And
if a poor hungry family has gleaned a sheaf of corn, to make a little cake of, that they may
eat it and die, even that they take away from them, being well pleased to see them perish
for want, while they themselves are fed to the full. 4. They are very oppressive to the
labourers they employ in their service. They not only give them no wages, though the
labourer is worthy of his hire (and this is a crying sin, Jam_5:4), but they will not so
much as give them meat and drink: Those that carry their sheaves are hungry; so some
read it (Job_24:10), and it agrees with Job_24:11, that those who make oil within their
walls, and with a great deal of toil labour at the wine-presses, yet suffer thirst, which was
worse than muzzling the mouth of the ox that treads out the corn. Those masters forget
that they have a Master in heaven who will not allow the necessary supports of life to
their servants and labourers, not caring whether they can live by their labour or no. 5. It
is not only among the poor country people, but in the cities also, that we see the tears of
the oppressed (Job_24:12): Men groan from out of the city, where the rich merchants
and traders are as cruel with their poor debtors as the landlords in the country are with
their poor tenants. In cities such cruel actions as these are more observed than in
obscure corners of the country and the wronged have easier access to justice to right
themselves; and yet the oppressors there fear neither the restraints of the law nor the
just censures of their neighbours, but the oppressed groan and cry out like wounded
men, and can no more ease and help themselves, for the oppressors are inexorable and
deaf to their groans.
JAMISO , "Instances of the wicked doing the worst deeds with seeming impunity
(Job_24:2-24).
Some — the wicked.
landmarks — boundaries between different pastures (Deu_19:14; Pro_22:28).
BE SO , "Job 24:2. Some, &c. — In proof that wicked persons prosper, he
instances in two sorts of unrighteous people, whom all the world saw thriving in
their iniquity: 1st, Tyrants, and those that did wrong under pretence of law and
authority; and, 2d, Robbers and plunderers, that did wrong by downright force, as

the bands of the Sabeans and Chaldeans, who had lately plundered him. Remove
the landmark — By which men’s lands are distinguished, and their properties
secured, that so they may enlarge their own border by diminishing the estate of their
neighbour — which is so great an act of injustice that it was not only very strictly
forbidden by God in his law, but also declared execrable by the heathen, among
some of whom it was permitted to any man to kill him that did it. Forging or
destroying deeds is now a crime equivalent to this. They violently take away flocks,
and feed thereof — They take away cattle by force, and use them as if they were
their own. Or, they feed them; they do not hide, or kill them, but openly feed them
in their pastures, without any remorse, or shame, or fear of punishment, either from
God or man.
COFFMA , "The picture that emerges here is that of the heartless oppressors of
the poor. These wicked men steal land by moving landmarks (Job 24:2), they steal
whole flocks of animals and keep them (Job 24:3), they steal an orphan's ass, exact
an unjust pledge from widows (Job 24:4) and force their poor laborers who work
for them to scavenge for food in the mountains, where they have no residences, and
are not sufficiently clothed, and where they are often cold and hungry (Job 24:5-7).
"The soul of the wounded crieth out, yet God regardeth not the folly" (Job
24:12).They violate the spirit of the Law of God (Deuteronomy 25:4) by denying
those who tread their winepresses even a taste of the juice, and by forbidding them
to eat of the grain as they carry the sheaves of the wicked (Job 24:10,11). Yet all of
this wickedness does not result in any direct interference of God in the affairs of
such evil men.
Job's argument throughout these verses is simply that the wicked are not judged
and punished for such evil immediately, but that they get away with it, at least in
many instances.
Driver and others have complained that much of the text here is obscure, damaged,
uncertain, corrupt, etc.[3] In spite of such objections, it is clear enough what Job
was telling us in this review of what the wealthy wicked were doing to the poor.
ELLICOTT, "(2) Some remove the landmarks.— ow follows a description of the
wrong-doings of various classes of men. The removal of landmarks was expressly
provided against by the Mosaic Law (Deuteronomy 19:14; Deuteronomy 27:17).
And feed thereof.—Rather, probably, feed them: i.e., pasture them, the more easy to
do when the landmarks are so removed.
PULPIT, "Some remove the landmarks. (On this form of wickedness, see
Deuteronomy 19:14; Deuteronomy 27:17; Proverbs 22:28; Proverbs 23:10; Hosea
5:10.) Where neighbouring properties are not divided by fences of any kind, as in
the East generally, the only way of distinguishing between one man's land and

another's is by termini, or "landmarks," which are generally low stone metes or
bourns, placed at intervals on the boundary-line. An easy form of robbery was to
displace these bourns, putting them further back on one's neighbour's land. They
violently take away flocks. Others openly drive off their neighbours' flocks from
their pastures, mix them with their own flocks, and say that they are theirs (comp.
Job 1:15-17). And feed thereof; rather, and feed them; i.e. pasture them.
3 They drive away the orphan’s donkey
and take the widow’s ox in pledge.
BAR ES, "They drive away the ass of the fatherless - Of the orphan, who
cannot protect himself, and whose only property may consist in this useful animal.
Injury done to an orphan is always regarded as a crime of special magnitude, for they are
unable to protect themselves; see the notes at Job_22:9.
They take the widow’s ox for a pledge - See the notes at Job_22:6. The widow
was dependent on her ox to till the ground, and hence, the crime of taking it away in
pledge for the payment of a debt.
GILL, "They drive away the ass of the fatherless,.... Who are left destitute of
friends, and have none to take care of them, and provide for them; and who having one
ass to carry their goods for them from place to place, or to ride upon, which though a
creature of no great worth, yet of some usefulness, this they drove away from its pasture,
or however from its right owner; and who having but one, it was the more cruel and
inhuman to take it from him, see, 2Sa_12:3;
they take the widow's ox for a pledge; or oxen, the singular for the plural, with
which her lands were ploughed, for a single ox could be but of little service: some render
it "a cow" (h), by the milk of which she and her family were chiefly supported, as many
poor country families are by the means of a good milch cow; and to take this, on which
her livelihood depended, and retain for a pledge, was very barbarous; when the law
concerning pledges took place among the Jews, in the times of Moses, which it seems
was in being before with others, whatsoever was useful to persons, either to keep them
warm, or by which they got their bread, were not to be taken, at least not detained for a
pledge, see Exo_22:26.
JAMISO , "pledge — alluding to Job_22:6. Others really do, and with impunity, that
which Eliphaz falsely charges the afflicted Job with.

BE SO , "Job 24:3-4. They drive away the ass of the fatherless — Whose helpless
condition required their pity and mercy. He says, the ass, to aggravate their sin, in
that they robbed him who had but one ass. They take the widow’s ox — Thereby
depriving her, not only of the ox itself, but of all the benefit of its labours, by which
her life was sustained; for a pledge — Contrary to God’s law, first written in men’s
hearts, and afterward in the Holy Scriptures, Exodus 22:26. They turn the needy
out of the way — Out of the way of piety and virtue. They engage them to take evil
courses by their examples, or promises, or threatenings. Or, out of their right, of
which they deprive them, by subtlety or power. Or, rather, as the word ‫,מדרְך‬
middarech, more properly signifies, and as the next clause explains it, out of the
highway, out of the path or place in which these oppressors walk and range. These
needy persons labour to keep out of their way for fear of their further injuries and
oppressions. The poor of the earth hide themselves, &c. — For fear of these wicked
tyrants and persecutors.
ELLICOTT, "(3) They drive away the ass.—The ass and the ox, the fatherless and
the widow presumably having no more than one. He first describes the oppression
of the country, and then that of the city (Job 24:12). We seem here to catch a
glimpse of the sufferings of some oppressed and subject aboriginal race, such as the
Canaanites may have been to the Jews, though there is probably no allusion to them.
But, at all events, the writer and the speaker seem to have been familiar with some
such abject and servile race, who haunted the desert and suffered at the hands of
the more powerful tribes. Man’s inhumanity to man is, unhappily, a crime of very
long standing.
PULPIT, "They drive away the ass of the fatherless. This was another form of
oppression. "Whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I
defrauded? whom have I oppressed?" says Samuel, on laying down his judgeship (1
Samuel 12:3). The "fatherless" were particularly liable to such ill treatment, seeing
that they had lost their natural protector. They take the widow's ox for a pledge. It
may be true that this was nowhere a legal offence, not even among the Hebrews
(Lee); but it was a real act of oppression, and forms a fitting counterpart to the
injury done to the orphan. (On the natural tendency of selfish men to bear hard on
these two classes, see Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 24:17; Deuteronomy 27:19;
Psalms 94:6; Isaiah 1:23; Isaiah 10:2; Jeremiah 5:28; Zechariah 7:10.)
4 They thrust the needy from the path
and force all the poor of the land into hiding.

BAR ES, "They turn the needy out of the way - They crowd the poor out of the
path, and thus oppress and injure them. They do not allow them the advantages of the
highway.
The poor of the earth hide themselves together - For fear of the rich and
mighty man. Driven from the society of the rich, without their patronage and friendship,
they are obliged to associate together, and find in the wicked man neither protector nor
friend. And yet the proud oppressor is not punished.
CLARKE, "They turn the needy out of the way - They will not permit them to go
by the accustomed paths; they oblige them to take circuitous routes. When the Marquis
of H. was made ranger of Richmond Park, he thought it his duty to shut up a pathway
which had existed for a long time; and those who presumed, after this shutting up, to
break the fence, and take that path as formerly, were prosecuted. A cobbler near the
place entered an action against the marquis: the cause was tried, the marquis cast, and
the path ordered to be opened, on the ground that it had, time out of mind, been a public
undisputed path. When one asked the cobbler, “How he could have the boldness to go to
law with the Marquis of H.?” he answered, “Because I did not like to leave the world
worse than I found it.” All tolerated oppression and voluntary forfeiture of ancient
rights, are injurious to society at large, and they who wink at them leave the world worse
than they found it.
GILL, "They turn the needy out of the way,.... Either, in a moral sense, out of the
right way, the way of righteousness and truth, by their bad examples, or by their
threatenings or flatteries; or, in a civil sense, out of the way of their livelihood, by taking
that from them by which they got it; or, in a literal sense, obliging them to turn out of the
way from them, in a supercilious and haughty manner, or causing them, through fear of
them, to get out of the way, that they might not meet them, lest they should insult them,
beat and abuse them, or take that little from them they had, as follows:
the poor of the earth hide themselves together; who are not only poor in purse,
but poor in spirit, meek, humble, and lowly, and have not spirit and courage to stand
against such oppressors, but are easily crushed by them; these through fear of them hide
themselves in holes and corners in a body, in a large company together, lest they should
fall into their cruel hands, and be used by them in a barbarous manner, see Pro_28:28.
JAMISO , "Literally, they push the poor out of their road in meeting them.
Figuratively, they take advantage of them by force and injustice (alluding to the charge of
Eliphaz, Job_22:8; 1Sa_8:3).
poor — in spirit and in circumstances (Mat_5:3).
hide — from the injustice of their oppressors, who have robbed them of their all and
driven them into unfrequented places (Job_20:19; Job_30:3-6; Pro_28:28).

PULPIT, "They turn the needy out of the way. Either "they force poor men to turn
out of the road when they are using it, and wait till they have passed" (compare the
recent practice of the Japanese daimios), or "they make the highways so dangerous
with their violence that they compel the poor and needy to seek byways for safety" (
5:6). The second hemistich favours the latter interpretation. The poor of the earth
(or, the meek of the earth) hide themselves together. In the East there have always
been superior and subject races, as well as proud nobles and down-trodden men of
the same race. It is not clear of which of these two Job speaks. The former were
often hunted out of all the desirable lands, and forced to fly to rooks and caves and
holes in the ground, whence they were known as "Troglodytes." The latter, less
frequently, handed together, and withdrew to remote and sequestered spots, where
they might hope to live unmolested by their oppressors (Hebrews 11:38).
5 Like wild donkeys in the desert,
the poor go about their labor of foraging food;
the wasteland provides food for their children.
BAR ES, "Behold, as wild asses in the desert - In regard to the wild ass, see the
notes at Job_6:5. Schultens, Good, Noyes, and Wemyss, understand this, not as
referring to the haughty tyrants themselves, but to the oppressed and needy wretches
whom they had driven from society, and compelled to seek a precarious subsistence, like
the wild ass, in the desert. They suppose that the meaning is, that these outcasts go to
their daily toil seeking roots and vegetables in the desert for a subsistence, like wild
animals. But it seems to me that the reference is rather to another class of wicked
people: to the wandering tribes that live by plunder - who roam through the deserts, and
live an unrestrained and a lawless life, like wild animals. The wild ass is distinguished for
its fleetness, and the comparison here turns principally on this fact. These marauders
move rapidly from place to place, make their assault suddenly and unexpectedly, and,
having plundered the traveler, or the caravan, as suddenly disappear. They have no
home, cultivate no land, and keep no flocks. The only objection to this interpretation is,
that the wild ass is not a beast of prey. But, in reply to this, it may be said, that the
comparison does not depend on that, but on the fact that they resemble those animals in
their lawless habits of life; see Job_11:12, note; Job_39:5, note.
Go they forth to their work - To their employment - to wit, plunder.
Rising betimes - Rising early. It is a custom of the Orientals everywhere to rise by
break of day. In journeys, they usually rise long before day, and travel much in the night,

and during the heat of the day they rest. As caravans often traveled early, plunderers
would rise early, also, to meet them.
For a prey - For plunder - the business of their lives.
The wilderness - The desert, for so the word wilderness is used in the Scriptures;
see Isa_35:1, note; Mat_3:1, note.
Yieldeth food - To wit, by plunder. They obtain subsistence for themselves and their
families by plundering the caravans of the desert. The idea of Job is, that they are seen
by God, and yet that they are suffered to roam at large.
CLARKE, "Rising betimes for a prey - The general sense here seems plain
enough. There are some who live a lawless roaming life: make a predatory life their
employment; for this purpose, frequent the wilderness, where they seize on and
appropriate whatsoever they find, and by this method they and their families are
supported. Mr. Good says: “The sense has never yet been understood by any
commentator;” and hence he proposes a different division of the words, placing ‫ערבה‬
arabah, the desert or wilderness, in the first hemistich, thus: -
“Rising early for the pillage of the wilderness;
The bread of themselves and of their children.”
Others think that the words are spoken solely of the poor under the hand of
oppression, who are driven away from their homes, and obliged to seek such support as
the wilderness can afford. Such was originally the state of the Bedouins, and of the
wandering Arab hordes in general: the oppression of the tyrannous governors obliged
them to seek refuge in the deserts, where they still live in a roaming predatory life.
GILL, "Behold, as wild asses in the desert,.... The word "as" is a supplement, and
may be omitted, and the words be interpreted literally of wild asses, as they are by
Sephorno, whose proper place is in the wilderness, to which they are used, and where
their food is provided for them, and which they diligently seek for, for them and their
young; and so the words may be descriptive of the place where the poor hide themselves,
and of the company they are obliged to keep; but the Targum supplies the note of
similitude as we do; and others (i) observe it to be wanting, and so it may respect wicked
men before described, who may be compared to the wild asses of the wilderness for their
folly and stupidity, man being born like a wild ass's colt, Job_11:12; and for their lust
and wantonness, and for their rebellion against God and his laws, and their
unteachableness. Perhaps some regard may be had to the wild Arabs that were in Job's
neighbourhood, the descendants of Ishmael, called the wild man, as he is in Gen_16:12;
who lived by plunder and robbery, as these here:
they go forth to their work: of thieving and stealing, robbing and plundering, as
their trade, and business, and occupation of life, and as naturally and constantly as men
go to their lawful employment, and as if it was one:
rising betimes for a prey; getting up early in a morning to meet the industrious
traveller on the road, and make a prey of him, rob him of what he has about him; for
they cannot sleep unless they do mischief:

the wilderness yieldeth food for them, and for their children; though they are
lurking in a wilderness where no sustenance is to be had, yet, by robbing everyone that
passes by, they get enough for them and their families: though some understand all this
of the poor, who are obliged to hide themselves from their oppressors, and go into the
wilderness in droves like wild asses, and as timorous and as swift as they in fleeing; and
are forced to hard service, and to rise early to earn their bread, and get sustenance for
their families; and who in the main are obliged to live on berries and roots, and what a
wild desert will afford; but the, word "prey" is not applicable to the pains and labours of
such industrious people, wherefore the former sense is best; and besides, there seems to
be one continued account of wicked men.
HE RY 5-12, "II. He speaks of robbers, and those that do wrong by downright force,
as the bands of the Sabeans and Chaldeans, which had lately plundered him. He does not
mention them particularly, lest he should seem partial to his own cause, and to judge of
men (as we are apt to do) by what they are to us; but among the Arabians, the children of
the east (Job's country), there were those that lived by spoil and rapine, making
incursions upon their neighbours, and robbing travellers. See how they are described
here, and what mischief they do, Job_24:5-8. 1. Their character is that they are as wild
asses in the desert, untamed, untractable, unreasonable, Ishmael's character (Gen_
16:12), fierce and furious, and under no restraint of law or government, Jer_2:23, Jer_
2:24. They choose the deserts for their dwelling, that they may be lawless and
unsociable, and that they may have opportunity of doing the more mischief. The desert
is indeed the fittest place for such wild people, Job_39:6. But no desert can set men out
of the reach of God's eye and hand. 2. Their trade is to steal, and to make a prey of all
about them. They have chosen it as their trade; it is their work, because there is more to
be got by it, and it is got more easily, than by an honest calling. They follow it as their
trade; they follow it closely; they go forth to it as their work, as man goes forth to his
labour, Psa_104:23. They are diligent and take pains at it: They rise betimes for a prey.
If a traveller be out early, they will be out as soon to rob him. They live by it as a man
lives by his trade: The wilderness (not the grounds there but the roads there) yieldeth
food for them and for their children; they maintain themselves and their families by
robbing on the high-way, and bless themselves in it without any remorse of compassion
or conscience, and with as much security as if it were honestly got; as Ephraim, Hos_
12:7, Hos_12:8. 3. See the mischief they do to the country. They not only rob travellers,
but they make incursions upon their neighbours, and reap every one his corn in the field
(Job_24:6), that is, they enter upon other people's ground, cut their corn, and carry it
away as freely as if it were their own. Even the wicked gather the vintage, and it is their
wickedness; or, as we read it, They gather the vintage of the wicked, and so one wicked
man is made a scourge to another. What the wicked got by extortion (which is their way
of stealing) these robbers get from them in their way of stealing; thus oftentimes are the
spoilers spoiled, Isa_33:1. 4. The misery of those that fall into their hands (Job_24:7,
Job_24:8): They cause the naked, whom they have stripped, not leaving them the
clothes to their backs, to lodge, in the cold nights, without clothing, so that they are wet
with the showers of the mountains, and, for want of a better shelter, embrace the rock,
and are glad of a cave or den in it to preserve them from the injuries of the weather.
Eliphaz had charged Job with such inhumanity as this, concluding that Providence
would not thus have stripped him if he had not first stripped the naked of their clothing,
Job_22:6. Job here tells him there were those that were really guilty of those crimes with
which he was unjustly charged and yet prospered and had success in their villanies, the

curse they laid themselves under working invisibly; and Job thinks it more just to argue
as he did, from an open notorious course of wickedness inferring a secret and future
punishment, than to argue as Eliphaz did, who from nothing but present trouble
inferred a course of past secret iniquity. The impunity of these oppressors and spoilers is
expressed in one word (Job_24:12): Yet God layeth not folly to them, that is, he does not
immediately prosecute them with his judgments for these crimes, nor make them
examples, and so evince their folly to all the world. He that gets riches, and not by right,
at his end shall be a fool, Jer_17:11. But while he prospers he passes for a wise man, and
God lays not folly to him until he saith, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of
thee, Luk_12:20.
JAMISO , "wild asses — (Job_11:12). So Ishmael is called a “wild ass-man”;
Hebrew (Gen_16:12). These Bedouin robbers, with the unbridled wildness of the ass of
the desert, go forth thither. Robbery is their lawless “work.” The desert, which yields no
food to other men, yields food for the robber and his children by the plunder of
caravans.
rising betimes — In the East travelling is begun very early, before the heat comes on.
K&D 5-8, "The poet could only draw such a picture as this, after having himself seen
the home of his hero, and the calamitous fate of such as were driven forth from their
original abodes to live a vagrant, poverty-stricken gipsy life. By Job_24:5, one is
reminded of Psa_104:21-23, especially since in Job_24:11 of this Psalm the ‫ים‬ ִ‫א‬ ָ‫ר‬ ְ ,
onagri (Kulans), are mentioned, - those beautiful animals
(Note: Layard, New Discoveries, p. 270, describes these wild asses' colts. The
Arabic name is like the Hebrew, el-ferâ, or also himâr el-wahsh, i.e., wild ass, as we
have translated, whose home is on the steppe. For fuller particulars, vid., Wetzstein's
note on Job_39:5.)
which, while young, as difficult to be broken in, and when grown up are difficult to be
caught; which in their love of freedom are an image of the Beduin, Gen_16:12; their
untractableness an image of that which cannot be bound, Job_11:12; and from their
roaming about in herds in waste regions, are here an image of a gregarious, vagrant, and
freebooter kind of life. The old expositors, as also Rosenm., Umbr., Arnh., and Vaih., are
mistaken in thinking that aliud hominum sceleratorum genus is described in Job_24:5.
Ewald and Hirz. were the first to perceive that Job_24:5 is the further development of
Job_24:4, and that here, as in Job_30:1, those who are driven back into the wastes and
caves, and a remnant of the ejected and oppressed aborigines who drag out a miserable
existence, are described.
The accentuation rightly connects ‫במדבר‬ ‫;פראים‬ by the omission of the Caph similit., as
e.g., Isa_51:12, the comparison (like a wild ass) becomes an equalization (as a wild ass).
The perf. ‫אוּ‬ ְ‫ֽצ‬ָ‫י‬ is a general uncoloured expression of that which is usual: they go forth
‫ם‬ ָ‫ל‬ ֳ‫ֽע‬ ָ‫פ‬ ְ‫,ב‬ in their work (not: to their work, as the Psalmist, in Psa_104:23, expresses
himself, exchanging ְ‫ב‬ for ְ‫.)ל‬ ‫ף‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ָ ַ‫ל‬ ‫י‬ ֵ‫ר‬ ֲ‫ֽח‬ ַ‫שׁ‬ ְ‫,מ‬ searching after prey, i.e., to satisfy their hunger
(Psa_104:21), from ‫ף‬ ַ‫ר‬ ָ‫,ט‬ in the primary signification decerpere (vid., Hupfeld on Psa_

7:3), describes that which in general forms their daily occupation as they roam about;
the constructivus is used here, without any proper genitive relation, as a form of
connection, according to Ges. §116, 1. The idea of waylaying is not to be connected with
the expression. Job describes those who are perishing in want and misery, not so much
as those who themselves are guilty of evil practices, as those who have been brought
down to poverty by the wrongdoing of others. As is implied in ‫משׁחרי‬ (comp. the morning
Psa_63:2; Isa_26:9), Job describes their going forth in the early morning; the children
(‫ים‬ ִ‫ר‬ ָ‫ע‬ְ‫,נ‬ as Job_1:19; Job_29:5) are those who first feel the pangs of hunger. ‫ּו‬‫ל‬ refers
individually to the father in the company: the steppe (with its scant supply of roots and
herbs) is to him food for the children; he snatches it from it, it must furnish it for him.
The idea is not: for himself and his family (Hirz., Hahn, and others); for v. 6, which has
been much misunderstood, describes how they, particularly the adults, obtain their
necessary subsistence. There is no MS authority for reading ‫ּו‬‫ל‬‫י־‬ ִ‫ל‬ ְ instead of ‫ּו‬‫ל‬‫י‬ ִ‫ל‬ ְ ; the
translation “what is not to him” (lxx, Targ., and partially also the Syriac version) is
therefore to be rejected. Raschi correctly interprets ‫יבולו‬ as a general explanation, and
Ralbag ‫:תבואתו‬ it is, as in Job_6:5, mixed fodder for cattle, farrago, consisting of oats or
barley sown among vetches and beans, that is intended. The meaning is not, however, as
most expositors explain it, that they seek to satisfy their hunger with food for cattle
grown in the fields of the rich evil-doer; for ‫ר‬ ַ‫צ‬ ָ‫ק‬ does not signify to sweep together, but to
reap in an orderly manner; and if they meant to steal, why did they not seize the better
portion of the produce? It is correct to take the suff. as referring to the ‫ע‬ ָ‫שׁ‬ ָ‫ר‬ which is
mentioned in the next clause, but it is not to be understood that they plunder his fields
per nefas; on the contrary, that he hires them to cut the fodder for his cattle, but does
not like to entrust the reaping of the better kinds of corn to them. It is impracticable to
press the Hiph. ‫יקצירו‬ of the Chethib to favour this rendering; on the contrary, ‫הקציר‬
stands to ‫קצר‬ in like (not causative) signification as ‫הנחה‬ to ‫נחה‬ (vid., on Job_31:18). In
like manner, Job_24:6 is to be understood of hired labour. The rich man prudently
hesitates to employ these poor people as vintagers; but he makes use of their labour
(whilst his own men are fully employed at the wine-vats) to gather the straggling grapes
which ripen late, and were therefore left at the vintage season. the older expositors are
reminded of ‫שׁ‬ ֶ‫ק‬ ֶ‫,ל‬ late hay, and explain ‫שׁוּ‬ ֵ ַ‫ל‬ִ‫י‬ as denom. by ‫לקשׁו‬ ‫יכרתו‬ (Aben-Ezra,
Immanuel, and others) or ‫לקשׁו‬ ‫יאכלו‬ (Parchon); but how unnatural to think of the second
mowing, or even of eating the after-growth of grass, where the vineyard is the subject
referred to! On the contrary, ‫שׁ‬ ֵ ִ‫ל‬ signifies, as it were, serotinare, i.e., serotinos fructus
colligere (Rosenm.):
(Note: In the idiom of Hauran, ‫שׂ‬ ַ‫ק‬ ָ‫,ל‬ fut. i, signifies to be late, to come late; in Piel,
to delay, e.g., the evening meal, return, etc.; in Hithpa. telaqqas, to arrive too late.
Hence laqıs ‫ישׂ‬ ִ‫ק‬ ָ‫ל‬ and loqsı ‫י‬ ִ‫שׂ‬ ְ‫ק‬ ֻ‫,ל‬ delayed, of any matter, e.g., ‫ישׁ‬ ִ‫ק‬ ָ‫ל‬ and ‫י‬ ִ‫שׂ‬ ְ‫ק‬ ֻ‫ל‬ ‫ע‬ ַ‫ר‬ֶ‫,ז‬ late
seed (= ‫שׁ‬ ֶ‫ק‬ ֶ‫,ל‬ Amo_7:1, in connection with which the late rain in April, which often
fails, is reckoned on), ‫י‬ ִ‫שׂ‬ ְ‫ק‬ ֻ‫ל‬ ‫ד‬ ֶ‫ל‬ֶ‫,ו‬ a child born late (i.e., in old age); bakır ‫יר‬ ִ‫כ‬ ָ‫ב‬ and bekrı
‫י‬ ִ‫ר‬ ְ‫כ‬ ַ‫ב‬ are the opposites in every signification. - Wetzst.)
this is the work which the rich man assigns to them, because he gains by it, and even in

the worst case can lose but little.
Job_30:7 tell how miserably they are obliged to shift for themselves during this
autumnal season of labour, and also at other times. Naked (‫ּום‬‫ר‬ ָ‫,ע‬ whether an adverbial
form or not, is conceived of after the manner of an accusative: in a naked, stripped
condition, Arabic ‛urjânan) they pass the night, without having anything on the body (on
‫בוּשׁ‬ ְ‫,ל‬ vid., on Psa_22:19), and they have no (‫ין‬ ֵ‫א‬ supply ‫ם‬ ֶ‫ה‬ ָ‫)ל‬ covering or veil
(corresponding to the notion of ‫ד‬ֶ‫ג‬ ֶ ) in the cold.
(Note: All the Beduins sleep naked at night. I once asked why they do this, since
they are often disturbed by attacks at night, and I was told that it is a very ancient
custom. Their clothing (kiswe, ‫ה‬ָ‫ו‬ ְ‫ס‬ ִ‫,)כ‬ both of the nomads of the steppe (bedû) and of
the caves (wa‛r), is the same, summer and winter; many perish on the pastures when
overtaken by snow-storms, or by cold and want, when their tents and stores are
taken from them in the winter time by an enemy. - Wetzst.)
They become thoroughly drenched by the frequent and continuous storms that visit the
mountains, and for want of other shelter are obliged to shelter themselves under the
overhanging rocks, lying close up to them, and clinging to them, - an idea which is
expressed here by ‫קוּ‬ ְ ִ‫,ח‬ as in Lam_4:5, where, of those who were luxuriously brought up
on purple cushions, it is said that they “embrace dunghills;” for in Palestine and Syria,
the forlorn one, who, being afflicted with some loathsome disease, is not allowed to enter
the habitations of men, lies on the dunghill (mezâbil), asking alms by day of the passers-
by, and at night hiding himself among the ashes which the sun has warmed.
(Note: Wetzstein observes on this passage: In the mind of the speaker, ‫מחסה‬ is the
house made of stone, from which localities not unfrequently derive their names, as
El-hasa, on the east of the Dead Sea; the well-known commercial town El-hasâ, on
the east of the Arabian peninsula, which is generally called Lahsâ; the two of El-
hasja (‫ה‬ָ‫י‬ ְ‫ס‬ ַ‫ח‬ ְ‫ל‬ፍ), north-east of Damascus, etc.: so that ‫צור‬ ‫חבקו‬ forms the antithesis to
the comfortable dwellings of the Arab. ᐓaᏻarı, hadarı, i.e., one who is firmly settled.
The roots ‫,חבק‬ ‫,חבך‬ seem, in the desert, to be only dialectically distinct, and like the
root ‫,עבק‬ to signify to be pressed close upon one another. Thus ‫ה‬ ָ‫ק‬ ְ‫ב‬ ִ‫ח‬ (pronounced
hibtsha), a crowd = zahme, and asâbi‛ mahbûke (‫ה‬ ָ‫בוּכ‬ ְ‫ח‬ ַ‫,)מ‬ the closed fingers, etc. The
locality, hibikke (Beduin pronunciation for habáka, ‫ה‬ ָ‫כ‬ ָ‫ב‬ ֲ‫ח‬ with the Beduin Dag.
euphonicum), described in my Reisebericht, has its name from this circumstance
alone, that the houses have been attached to (fastened into) the rocks. Hence ‫ק‬ ֵ ִ‫ח‬ in
this passage signifies to press into the fissure of a rock, to seek out a corner which
may defend one (dherwe) against the cold winds and rain-torrents (which are far
heavier among the mountains than on the plain). The dherwe (from Arab. ᏽarâ, to
afford protection, shelter, a word frequently used in the desert) plays a prominent
part among the nomads; and in the month of March, as it is proverbially said the
dherwe is better than the ferwe (the skin), they seek to place their tents for protection
under the rocks or high banks of the wadys, on account of the cold strong winds, for
the sake of the young of the flocks, to which the cold storms are often very

destructive. When the sudden storms come on, it is a general thing for the shepherds
and flocks to hasten to take shelter under overhanging rocks, and the caverns (mughr,
Arab. mugr) which belong to the troglodyte age, and are e.g., common in the
mountains of Hauran; so that, therefore, Job_24:8 can as well refer to concealing
themselves only for a time (from rain and storm) in the clefts as to troglodytes, who
constantly dwell in caverns, or to those dwelling in tents who, during the storms,
seek the dherwe of rock sides.)
The usual accentuation, ‫מזרם‬ with Dechî, ‫הרים‬ with Munach, after which it should be
translated ab inundatione montes humectantur, is false; in correct Codd. ‫זרם‬ has also
Munach; the other Munach is, as in Job_23:5, Job_23:9, Job_24:6, and freq., a
substitute for Dechî. Having sketched this special class of the oppressed, and those who
are abandoned to the bitterest want, Job proceeds with his description of the many
forms of wrong which prevail unpunished on the earth:
BE SO , "Job 24:5. Behold, as wild asses — Which are lawless and fierce, and
greedy of prey; in the desert — Which is the proper habitation of wild asses,
Jeremiah 2:24 : they go forth to their work — These oppressors go forth to spoil and
rob, which is their constant work and trade: rising betimes for the prey —
Beginning their work of plunder before the poor go to their daily labour. The
wilderness yieldeth food for them — They are so diligent and industrious in their
wicked work, that they fetch food for themselves and families even out of desert
places, in which the owners can with difficulty subsist.
COKE, "Job 24:5. Behold, as wild asses, &c.— See, like the wild asses in the desart,
they go forth to their labour: they are up with the dawn for bare food: the common
must find them meat for the children. This, and the following verses, to the 11th,
describe the extreme misery of the poor people under those oppressors. "They go
out before day, in droves, like the wild asses in the desart, to their labour, and that
for bare food only: for, as for their families, the wilderness must supply them.
Obliged to lie in the open air, with neither covering to keep them warm, nor a hut
over their heads to keep them dry, they must cling close to the rock to shelter them
from storms; their children are torn from the breast to be sold into slavery. Job
24:9. The orphan is torn by violence from the breast; the garments of the poor are
taken for a pledge: Job 24:10. They go about naked, because they have no clothing;
and those who are starving for hunger carry the sheaves: Job 24:11. They work
during the noon-tide heat in their vineyards: they tread their vine-vats, but are
athirst: a misery the more exquisite, as it was heightened by the immediate presence
of what would relieve them; but they dared not stretch forth their hands to take it;"
Heath: with whom Houbigant agrees, except in the 5th and 6th verses, which he
renders thus, Behold, like wild asses, which go forth into the desart for their food,
ready for their prey, industrious to seek out food for their young; (Job 24:6.) So they
reap the corn in the field by night; they gather the vintage by wickedness; (Job
24:7.) so that the naked lodge, &c.

Job 24 commentary

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Job 24 commentary