Job 24)
1 Why, seeing times (put for the events which take place at in them) are not hidden from The Almighty, do they that know him not perceive (or understand) His days? (Put for His doings in them: e.g. visitation, or judgment,&c. Cp. 18:20. Pss. 37:13; 137:7. Ezek. 21:29. Obad. 12. Luke 19:42. 1 Cor. 4:3.)
B l 2-17. Crimes of lawless men.
m 18-20. What the issue ought to be.
l 21,22. Crimes of lawless men.
m 23-25. What the issue is commonly is.
2 Some (i.e. the lawless men, whose various crimes are detailed in the following verses) remove the landmarks (cp. Deut. 19:14); 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. (Cp. v. 9 and Deut. 24:6,17. Amos 2:8.)
4 They (while others) turn the needy out of the way: the wretched 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 yields food for them and for their offspring.
6 They reap down corn corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of a lawless one.
7 They cause the naked (put for scantily clad, or threadbare) 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 wine-presses, and suffer thirst.
12 Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded cries out: yet GOD (Eloah) lays not folly to them.
13 These (there is a pause between vv.12 and 13. Note the 3 stages of the lawless: [1] avoiding the light [v.16. John 3:20]; [2] consequent ignorance; [3] final result) 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 kills the poor and needy, and [then again] in the night is as a thief.
15 The eye also of the adulterer waits for the darkness, saying, 'No eye shall see me:' and disguises 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.
18 He is swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: he returns not to the way of the vineyards.
19 Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so does 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 put for the wicked man shall be broken as a tree.
21 He evil entreats the barren that bears not: and doe not good to the widow.
22 He draws also the mighty with his power: he rises up, and no man is sure of life.
23 Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he rests; 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?"