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Job 24

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Why Does God Tolerate Injustice? 1–12

1
Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days? ​
2
Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof. ​
3
They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge. ​
4
They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together.
5
Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children. ​
6
They reap every one his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked.
7
They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold. ​
8
They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.
9
They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor.
10
They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry; ​
11
Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.
12
Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them. ​

The Wicked Who Rebel Against the Light 13–17

13
They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof. ​
14
The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.
15
The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face. ​
16
In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.
17
For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.

The Swift, Certain Judgment of the Wicked 18–25

18
He is swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards. ​
19
Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned.
20
The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree. ​
21
He evil entreateth the barren that beareth not: and doeth not good to the widow. ​
22
He draweth also the mighty with his power: he riseth up, and no man is sure of life.
23
Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he resteth; yet his eyes are upon their ways.
24
They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn. ​
25
And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth? ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Job 24

Verse 1

times are not hidden from the Almighty — Tsaphan, ‘hidden’, is the verb of 23:12 (‘esteemed’), to store up or conceal. ‘Times’ are set times, and ‘his days’ are the days on which he judges. Job asks why those who know him do not see them. The wicked, he had said, are ‘reserved to the day of destruction’ (21:30), and Christ says the times are in the Father’s ‘own power’ (Acts 1:7).

Verse 2

Some remove the landmarks — Gevulah is a boundary mark between inheritances. The law cursed it: ‘Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark’ (Deut 27:17), and Prov 23:10 pairs it with entering ‘the fields of the fatherless’. The list of vv.2–4 names the wrongs against the poor that Eliphaz had laid on Job (22:6–9).

Verse 3

They drive away the ass of the fatherless — ‘For a pledge’ is chabal, the verb of 22:6. The law forbade taking a pledge that a household lived by: ‘No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge’ (Deut 24:6), and ‘nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge’ (Deut 24:17). Job charges others with what Eliphaz charged him.

Verse 5

as wild asses in the desert — Pere is the wild ass, and ‘rising betimes’ is shachar, to be up at the dawn. The poor go out to their ‘work’ (poal) for ‘prey’ (tereph), what can be torn or gathered. The LORD later speaks of the same animal: ‘Whose house I have made the wilderness’ (39:6).

Verse 7

They cause the naked to lodge without clothing — ‘Covering’ is kesuth, the word of Exod 22:27, where a pledged garment is ‘his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep?’ Job says at 31:19–20 that he never saw ‘any poor without covering’.

Verse 10

they take away the sheaf from the hungry — Omer is a sheaf. The law set one aside: a sheaf forgotten in the field ‘shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow’ (Deut 24:19). Here the hungry carry the sheaf and are still hungry, because it is taken from them.

Verse 12

the soul of the wounded crieth out — ‘Wounded’ is chalal, one pierced or slain, and ‘crieth out’ is shava, the cry for help. Elihu says such cries reach God: ‘he heareth the cry of the afflicted’ (34:28). James says ‘the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth’ (Jas 5:4). Job’s complaint is that God has not yet acted.

Verse 13

those that rebel against the light — Marad is to rebel. The ‘light’ (or) names the day and what it shows. Vv.14–16 name three who avoid it: the murderer, the adulterer and the thief. Christ says, ‘every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved’ (John 3:20).

Verse 15

waiteth for the twilight — Nesheph, dusk, is the word of Prov 7:9, ‘In the twilight, in the evening’. ‘Adulterer’ is naaph, the verb of the seventh commandment. ‘No eye shall see me’ is answered by Elihu: ‘There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves’ (34:22). Job denies such waiting at 31:9.

Verse 18

He is swift as the waters — The verse is hard. Qal is light or swift, ‘portion’ (chelqah) is a plot of land, and ‘cursed’ is qalal, to make light or vile. Readers have taken it of raiders quick on the water, and of men who slip away when seen. If vv.18–24 are Job’s own words, they state what he grants elsewhere, that the wicked are ‘reserved to the day of destruction’ (21:30).

Verse 20

the worm shall feed sweetly on him — Mathaq, ‘sweetly’, is from the root of 20:12, ‘Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth’. The worm (rimmah) is the one Job called his mother in 17:14. ‘He shall be no more remembered’ repeats the thought of Bildad at 18:17, and ‘wickedness shall be broken as a tree’ recalls 18:16.

Verse 21

He evil entreateth the barren — The ‘barren’ (aqar) are named beside the widow as those without sons to defend them: ‘they shall speak with the enemies in the gate’ (Ps 127:5). Hannah’s adversary ‘provoked her sore’ ‘because the LORD had shut up her womb’ (1 Sam 1:6). Job says of himself, ‘I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy’ (29:13).

Verse 24

cut off as the tops of the ears of corn — ‘Ears’ is shibbol, the word of Judg 12:6, ‘Say now Shibboleth’. The wicked are ‘exalted for a little while’ (meat), as in Ps 37:10, ‘For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be’. Eliphaz had used the grain picture of the righteous: ‘like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season’ (5:26).

Verse 25

who will make me a liar — Kazab is to lie or fail. The challenge ends Job’s speech: let anyone show that the account is false. He had said at 6:28, ‘it is evident unto you if I lie’. ‘Nothing worth’ is al, usually the negative ‘not’, here used as a noun. Bildad’s reply in ch.25 is six verses and does not take it up.