Wisdom · Chapter 24 of 42

Job 24

Job extends his protest by cataloguing the world's unpunished injustice. He asks why God does not set visible days of judgment. The wicked move boundary stones, steal flocks, drive off the orphan's donkey, and leave the poor naked, hungry, and homeless. Murderers and adulterers work under cover of darkness. Yet God seems to charge them with no wrong, though Job affirms that their end will finally come.

What happens in Job 24

Job asks why, since God knows all times, those who know him do not see appointed days of judgment. He then describes rampant oppression. Wicked people remove landmarks to steal land, seize flocks, drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and take the widow's ox as a pledge. The poor labor in the wilderness, glean in fields not their own, spend the night naked and cold, clinging to rocks for shelter. Infants are torn from the breast as pledges; the hungry carry sheaves while starving.

The dying groan in the city, but God seems to lay no charge. Then Job turns to those who rebel against the light: the murderer who kills the poor at dawn, the adulterer and thief who work in darkness, avoiding the light they hate. Job affirms that judgment does eventually reach them, that they are exalted briefly then cut down like heads of grain. He challenges anyone to prove him wrong.

Job 24 in context

This difficult speech continues Job's dismantling of the friends' claim that justice is always swift and visible. Where they insist evildoers are quickly ruined, Job forces attention onto the countless victims whose oppressors go unpunished in this life. The chapter is among the Old Testament's most vivid protests on behalf of the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the laborer.

Its Hebrew is notoriously difficult, but its thrust is clear: the visible world is full of unavenged wrong, and Job leaves resolution to God's certain judgment.

Main themes of Job 24

Job 24 (KJV)

1Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days? 2Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof. 3They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. 4They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together. 5Behold, 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. 6They reap every one his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked. 7They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold. 8They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter. 9They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor. 10They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry; 11Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst. 12Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them. 13They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof. 14The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief. 15The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face. 16In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light. 17For 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. 18He is swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards. 19Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned. 20The 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. 21He evil entreateth the barren that beareth not: and doeth not good to the widow. 22He draweth also the mighty with his power: he riseth up, and no man is sure of life. 23Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he resteth; yet his eyes are upon their ways. 24They 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. 25And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?

Verses to carry from Job 24

“Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.”Job 24:2

“Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them.”Job 24:12

“The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.”Job 24:14

Reflection

Job refuses to look away from the suffering of the poor and the impunity of the powerful. Faith does not require pretending injustice is already resolved. Let your eyes stay open to the oppressed as God's do. In Christ, God champions the vulnerable and promises to bring every hidden deed into the light.

A prayer from Job 24