Albert Barnes Commentary Job 24:16

"In the dark they dig through houses: They shut themselves up in the day-time; They know not the light." — Job 24:16 (ASV)

In the dark they dig through houses - This probably refers to another class of wicked people. The adulterer goes out stealthily in the night, but it is not his way to “dig” into houses. The people referred to here, however, are robbers, who conceal themselves by day and secretly enter houses at night to plunder.

The phrase “dig through” probably refers to the fact that houses were made of clay or sun-dried bricks—a type of mud cottage—so their walls could be easily penetrated. In the East, nearly all houses are made of unbaked brick, and there is little difficulty in making a hole in the wall large enough to admit the human body . In Bengal, Mr. Ward says, it is common for thieves to dig through the walls of houses made of mud, or under the house floors, which are made merely of earth, and thus enter the dwellings while the occupants are asleep. Rosenmuller’s Alte und neue Morgenland, “in loc.”

Which they had marked for themselves in the daytime - According to this translation, the idea would be that in the daytime they carefully observed houses and saw where an entrance could be made. However, this interpretation seems contrary to the general sense of the passage. It is said that they avoid the light and that the night is the time for accomplishing their purposes. Probably, therefore, the meaning of this passage is, “in the daytime they shut themselves up.” It is translated this way by Gesenius, Rosenmuller, Noyes, and others.

The word used here and translated “marked” (חתם châtham), means to seal, to seal up; and therefore, the idea of shutting up, or fastening. (See Job 9:7, note; Isaiah 8:17, note.) Thus, it may mean to shut up tightly as if one was locked in. The idea here is that in the daytime they shut themselves up securely in their places of concealment and went out for their plunder in the night.

They know not the light - They do not see the light. They do all their work in the dark.