Instances of the wicked doing the worst deeds with seeming impunity. Some - the wicked.
Landmarks - boundaries between different pastures (Deuteronomy 19:14; Proverbs 22:28).
Verse 3. Pledge - alluding to Job 22:6. Others really do, and with impunity, that which Eliphaz falsely charges the afflicted Job with.
Verse 4. Literally, they push the poor out of their road in meeting them. Figuratively, they take advantage of them by force and injustice (alluding to the charge of Eliphaz (Job 22:8; 1 Samuel 8:3).
Poor - in spirit and in circumstances (Matthew 5:3).
Hide - from the injustice of their oppressors, who have robbed them of their all, and driven them into unfrequented places (Job 20:19; Job 30:3; Proverbs 28:28). The aboriginal inhabitants were driven into the deserts, to live in the greatest misery and want; and when, compelled by need, they have ventured out of their hiding-places, they are cruelly driven back into them by their oppressors: a frequent occurrence in early times.
Verse 5. Wild asses - (Job 11:12). So Ishmael is called a wild donkey-man; Hebrew (Genesis 16:12). These Bedouin robbers, with the unbridled wildness of the donkey of the desert, go forth there. Robbery is their lawless "work." The desert, which yields no food to other men, yields food for the robber and his children by the plunder of caravans.
Rising betimes. In the East traveling is begun very early, before the heat comes on.
Verse 6. Like the wild donkeys (Job 24:5), they (these Bedouin robbers) reap (metaphorically) their various grain (so the Hebrew for "grain" means [ bªliyl (H1098), meslin]). The wild donkey does not let man pile up in a stable his mixed provender (Isaiah 30:24); so these robbers find their food in the open air, at one time in the desert (Job 24:5), at another in the fields.
The vintage of the wicked - the vintage of robbery, not of honest industry. If we translate 'belonging to the wicked,' then it will imply that the wicked alone have vineyards, the 'pious poor' (Job 24:4) have none. 'Gather' in Hebrew [ leqesh (H3954); yªlaqeeshuw (H3953) is latter grass] is gather late: as the first clause refers to the early harvest of grain, so the second to the vintage late in autumn.
Verse 7. Umbreit understands it of the Bedouin robbers, who are quite regardless of the comforts of life, 'They pass the night naked, etc., and uncovered,' etc. But the allusion to Job 22:6 makes the English version preferable (see note below, Job 24:10). Frost is not uncommon at night in those regions (Gen. 13:40).
Verse 8. They - the plundered travelers.
Embrace the rock - take refuge under it (Lamentations 4:5, "They that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills").
Verse 9. From the breast - of the widowed mother. Kidnapping children for slaves. Here Job passes from wrongs in the desert to those done among the habitations of men. Pledge - namely, the garment of the poor debtor, as next verse shows.
Verse 10. (Note Job 22:6.) In Job 24:7 a like sin is alluded to: but there he implies open robbery of garments in the desert; here, the more refined robbery in civilized life, under the name of a "pledge." Having stripped the poor, they make them, besides, labour in their harvest-fields, and do not allow them to satisfy their hunger with any of the very grain which they carry to the heap. Worse treatment than that of the ox, according to Deuteronomy 25:4, "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn." The "from" of the English version is not in the Hebrew. Translate, 'they (the poor labourers), hungering, carry [ naasª'uw (H5375)] the sheaves' (Umbreit).
Verse 11. Which - `they,' the poor, 'press the oil within their walls:' namely, not only in the open fields (Job 24:10), but also in the wall-enclosed vineyards and olive gardens of the oppressor (Isaiah 5:5). Yet they are not allowed to quench their "thirst" with the grades and olives. Here, thirsty; Job 24:10, hungry.
Verse 12. Men - rather, 'mortals' (not the common Hebrew for "men"); so the Masoretic vowel points read as the English version [ mªtiym (H4962)]. But the vowel points are modern. The true reading is, The dying [ meetiym (H4962)]: answering to "the wounded" in the next clause: so Syriac, and one manuscript of DeRossi. Not merely in the country (Job 24:11), but also in the city, there are oppressed sufferers; who cry for help in vain.
From out of the city - i:e., they long to get forth, and be free outside of it (Exodus 1:11; Exodus 2:23).
Wounded - by the oppressor (Ezekiel 30:24).
Layeth not folly - takes no account of (by punishing) their sin ("folly" in Scripture; Job 1:22). This is the gist of the whole previous list of sins (Acts 17:30). Umbreit, with Syriac and two manuscripts, reads, by changing a vowel point, 'Regards not their supplication' [ tªpilaah (H8605), instead of tiplaah (H8604)].
Verse 13. So far as to openly committed sins; now, those done in the dark. Translate, 'There are those among them (the wicked) who rebel,' etc.
Light - both literally and figuratively (John 3:19; Proverbs 2:13).
Paths thereof - places where the light shines.
Verse 14. With the light. At early dawn, while still dark, when the traveler in the East usually sets out, and the poor labourer to his work, the murderous robber lies in wait then (Psalms 10:8, "He sitteth in the lurking places of the viilages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent; his eyes are privily set against the poor").
Is as a thief. Thieves in the East steal while men sleep at night; robbers murder at early dawn. The same man who steals at night, when light dawns, not only robs, but murders, to escape detection.