Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 24

Why, seeing times are not hidden. —Job, in this chapter, voices this perplexity, as it arises not only from his own case 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 those 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 do not know Him. It should 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.”

Some remove the landmarks. —Now follows a description of the wrongdoings of various classes of men. The removal of landmarks was expressly forbidden by the Mosaic Law (Deuteronomy 19:14; Deuteronomy 27:17).

And feed thereof. —Rather, probably, feed them: i.e., pasture them, which is easier to do once the landmarks are removed.

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 indigenous people, such as the Canaanites may have been to the Jews, though there is probably no allusion to them. But, in any case, the writer and the speaker seem to have been familiar with some such abject and servile people, who frequented 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.

They reap every one his corn. — Or, probably, the corn, that is, of the wicked tyrant. While they reap his corn and cut his provisions, they themselves must go without.

They cause him to go naked without clothing. — Rather, they go about, or, so that they go about, naked without clothing (the tautology is expressive in Hebrew, though meaningless in English), and hungry they carry the sheaves.