Job 24

Passage overview

Job 24 is about Job’s anguish as he cannot understand the world’s injustice (unfairness) and God’s providential care. After he asserted his innocence in the previous chapter (chapter 23), chapter 24 goes on to describe in detail the reality in which the wicked prosper while the righteous and the weak suffer unjustly. This reveals humanity’s long-standing question: “Why doesn’t God immediately bring justice to pass?”

1verse“Why aren’t times laid up by the Almighty? Why don’t those who know him see his days?

2verseThere are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.

3verseThey drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

4verseThey turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.

5verseBehold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them bread for their children.

6verseThey cut their food in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked.

7verseThey lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.

8verseThey are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.

9verseThere are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor,

10verseso that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.

11verseThey make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.

12verseFrom out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn’t regard the folly.

13verse“These are of those who rebel against the light. They don’t know its ways, nor stay in its paths.

14verseThe murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief.

15verseThe eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me.’ He disguises his face.

16verseIn the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don’t know the light.

17verseFor the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, for they know the terrors of the thick darkness.

18verse“They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion is cursed in the earth. They don’t turn into the way of the vineyards.

19verseDrought and heat consume the snow waters, so does Sheol those who have sinned.

20verseThe womb will forget him. The worm will feed sweetly on him. He will be no more remembered. Unrighteousness will be broken as a tree.

21verseHe devours the barren who don’t bear. He shows no kindness to the widow.

22verseYet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life.

23verseGod gives them security, and they rest in it. His eyes are on their ways.

24verseThey are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.

25verseIf it isn’t so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?”

Summary of the Main Contents

  • Verses 1–12: Job first raises the question, “Why is God’s judgment not carried out promptly?” Then he lists, in detail, how the weak (orphans, the poor, widows, etc.) are oppressed by society, while the wicked seem to prosper without immediate consequences.
  • Verses 13–17: He lists the actions of the wicked, but they commit violence and wrongdoing under cover of darkness, yet do not seem to face immediate judgment.
  • Verses 18–25: Job concludes by mentioning that the wicked will ultimately be judged. However, since the timing and method of that judgment are not predictable, he confesses that there are still aspects that, from a human perspective, cannot be understood.

Observations and Points to Ponder

  • “Why doesn’t God immediately judge evil?” is not only Job’s concern, but a question of faith that all of us experience today.
  • Job 24 acknowledges that in the real world, good and evil, injustice and justice are mixed together, and it offers a wisdom-literature perspective that confesses human limitations.
  • Job questions God and seeks answers from God. In the journey of faith, it shows an attitude of approaching God honestly when facing situations that are not understood.

Applying It to Myself

  • Like Job, I may also feel flustered or have questions when faced with real-life injustice or things I cannot understand. In that moment, I learn that I need an attitude of faith that asks God with a sincere heart and seeks answers.
  • I should also trust God’s work, even when it is not revealed immediately, and have the resolve to hold on to what is good.