“Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment? Why may those who know Him never see His days?
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mad·dū·a‘ miš·šad·day lō- niṣ·pə·nū ‘it·tîm wə·yō·ḏə·ʿō lō- ḥā·zū yā·māw
The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Job: Judgment for the Wicked
Job 24:1–25 — Job: Judgment for the Wicked. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
“Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment? Why may those who know Him never see His days?
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mad·dū·a‘ miš·šad·day lō- niṣ·pə·nū ‘it·tîm wə·yō·ḏə·ʿō lō- ḥā·zū yā·māw
Men move boundary stones; they pasture stolen flocks.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yaś·śî·ḡū gə·ḇu·lō·wṯ way·yir·‘ū gā·zə·lū ‘ê·ḏer
They drive away the donkey of the fatherless and take the widow’s ox in pledge.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yin·hā·ḡū ḥă·mō·wr yə·ṯō·w·mîm ’al·mā·nāh šō·wr yaḥ·bə·lū
They push the needy off the road and force all the poor of the land into hiding.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yaṭ·ṭū ’eḇ·yō·w·nîm mid·dā·reḵ ya·ḥaḏ ‘ă·nî·yê- ’ā·reṣ ḥub·bə·’ū
Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go to work foraging for food; the wasteland is food for their children.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hên pə·rā·’îm bam·miḏ·bār yā·ṣə·’ū bə·p̄ā·‘o·lām mə·ša·ḥă·rê laṭ·ṭā·rep̄ ‘ă·rā·ḇāh lōw le·ḥem lan·nə·‘ā·rîm
They gather fodder in the fields and glean the vineyards of the wicked.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yaq·ṣī·rū bə·lî·lōw baś·śā·ḏeh yə·laq·qê·šū wə·ḵe·rem rā·šā‘
Without clothing, they spend the night naked; they have no covering against the cold.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mib·bə·lî lə·ḇūš yā·lî·nū ‘ā·rō·wm wə·’ên kə·sūṯ baq·qā·rāh
Drenched by mountain rains, they huddle against the rocks for want of shelter.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yir·ṭā·ḇū hā·rîm miz·ze·rem ḥib·bə·qū- ṣūr ū·mib·bə·lî maḥ·seh
The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized for a debt.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yā·ṯō·wm yiḡ·zə·lū miš·šōḏ wə·‘al- ‘ā·nî yaḥ·bō·lū
Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
bə·lî lə·ḇūš hil·lə·ḵū ‘ā·rō·wm nā·śə·’ū ‘ō·mer ū·rə·‘ê·ḇîm
They crush olives within their walls; they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yaṣ·hî·rū bên- šū·rō·ṯām dā·rə·ḵū yə·qā·ḇîm way·yiṣ·mā·’ū
From the city, men groan, and the souls of the wounded cry out, yet God charges no one with wrongdoing.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mê·‘îr mə·ṯîm yin·’ā·qū wə·ne·p̄eš- ḥă·lā·lîm tə·šaw·wê·a‘ we·’ĕ·lō·w·ah yā·śîm lō- tip̄·lāh
Then there are those who rebel against the light, not knowing its ways or staying on its paths.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hêm·māh hā·yū bə·mō·rə·ḏê- ’ō·wr lō- hik·kî·rū ḏə·rā·ḵāw wə·lō yā·šə·ḇū bin·ṯî·ḇō·ṯāw
When daylight is gone, the murderer rises to kill the poor and needy; in the night he is like a thief.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lā·’ō·wr rō·w·ṣê·aḥ yā·qūm yiq·ṭāl- ‘ā·nî wə·’eḇ·yō·wn ū·ḇal·lay·lāh yə·hî ḵag·gan·nāḇ
The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight. Thinking, ‘No eye will see me,’ he covers his face.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·‘ên nō·’êp̄ šā·mə·rāh ne·šep̄ lê·mōr lō- ‘ā·yin ṯə·šū·rê·nî wə·sê·ṯer yā·śîm pā·nîm
In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves in, never to experience the light.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ba·ḥō·šeḵ ḥā·ṯar bāt·tîm yō·w·mām ḥit·tə·mū- lā·mōw lō- yā·ḏə·‘ū ’ō·wr
For to them, deep darkness is their morning; surely they are friends with the terrors of darkness!
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
kî lā·mōw ṣal·mā·weṯ yaḥ·dāw bō·qer kî- yak·kîr bal·hō·wṯ ṣal·mā·weṯ
They are but foam on the surface of the water; their portion of the land is cursed, so that no one turns toward their vineyards.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hū qal- ‘al- pə·nê- ma·yim ḥel·qā·ṯām bā·’ā·reṣ tə·qul·lal lō- yip̄·neh de·reḵ kə·rā·mîm
As drought and heat consume the melting snow, so Sheol steals those who have sinned.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ṣî·yāh ḡam- ḥōm yiḡ·zə·lū mê·mê- še·leḡ šə·’ō·wl ḥā·ṭā·’ū
The womb forgets them; the worm feeds on them; they are remembered no more. So injustice is broken like a tree.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
re·ḥem yiš·kā·ḥê·hū rim·māh mə·ṯā·qōw yiz·zā·ḵêr lō- ‘ō·wḏ ‘aw·lāh wat·tiš·šā·ḇêr kā·‘êṣ
They prey on the barren and childless, and show no kindness to the widow.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
rō·‘eh ‘ă·qā·rāh lō ṯê·lêḏ lō yə·yê·ṭîḇ wə·’al·mā·nāh
Yet by His power, God drags away the mighty; though rising up, they have no assurance of life.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
bə·ḵō·ḥōw ū·mā·šaḵ ’ab·bî·rîm yā·qūm wə·lō- ya·’ă·mîn ba·ḥay·yîn
He gives them a sense of security, but His eyes are on their ways.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yit·ten- lōw lā·ḇe·ṭaḥ wə·yiš·šā·‘ên wə·‘ê·nê·hū ‘al- dar·ḵê·hem
They are exalted for a moment, then they are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like heads of grain.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
rō·wm·mū mə·‘aṭ wə·’ê·nen·nū wə·hum·mə·ḵū yiq·qā·p̄ə·ṣūn kak·kōl yim·mā·lū ū·ḵə·rōš šib·bō·leṯ
If this is not so, then who can prove me a liar and reduce my words to nothing?”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·’im- lō ’ê·p̄ōw mî yaḵ·zî·ḇê·nî wə·yā·śêm mil·lā·ṯî lə·’al
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
Job begins with a question about God's government, not about his own suffering. The Hebrew asks why עִתִּים (“times”) are not נִצְפְּנוּ (“stored up”) from Shaddai, and why those who know Him have not beheld (חָזוּ, the seer's verb) His days. Cambridge calls them “diets of assize”, set court days on which the Judge of the earth sits and puts wrongs right. K&D reads ṣāpan in the sense Job gave it in 21:19, the storing up of punishment. JFB holds that Job never doubts the days are appointed (21:30); Cambridge thinks the complaint goes further, that God “fails to exercise a righteous rule.” Ellicott sums up the pain of it: the godly are “as perplexed about His principles of government as those who know Him not.”
Job then lists what happens on earth while heaven seems silent. Boundaries are moved and flocks seized (גָּזְלוּ) and grazed in the open; Barnes says the openness makes it more shameful. The orphan's one donkey is driven off and the widow's ox taken in pledge. JFB catches the irony that Eliphaz had falsely charged Job with exactly this (22:6). The poor are pushed off the road and “made to hide” (Pual חֻבְּאוּ). In vv. 5 to 8 they become wild asses in the steppe, sleeping naked in the cold with no כְּסוּת (the pledged cloak of Exodus 22:27), clinging to rock for lack of מַחְסֶה, the Psalter's word for God as refuge. K&D and Cambridge read these lines as dispossessed aboriginal peoples; Barnes, Gill and Pulpit read them as raiders. In vv. 9 to 11 the scene becomes serfdom: infants seized for debt, hungry men carrying sheaves, thirsty men treading winepresses. Barnes and K&D both note that even the ox was not muzzled under Deuteronomy 25:4. The movement ends in the city (v. 12), where the dying groan and the wounded cry out, “yet Eloah does not regard the תִּפְלָה”, the unseemly wrong. Henry gives the plain sense: God “does not at once send his judgments.”
With הֵמָּה (“those”) K&D sees a new class of wrongdoers: mōrᵉdê ʼôr, rebels against light. Murderer, adulterer and burglar each work by darkness. Ellicott notes that this order (murder, adultery, theft) is the order of the Decalogue, “suggestive of acquaintance with it.” ⚙ The three words (rōṣēaḥ, nōʼēp̄, gannāḇ) do come from the same roots as Exodus 20:13 to 15, in the same order. This tool still treats it as suggestive only, since a fixed list of crimes need not imply literary dependence. The adulterer thinks “No eye will see me” and sets a סֵתֶר over his face. Henry comments that “they are afraid of coming under the eye of men, but have no dread of God's eye.” Verse 17 reverses day and night: deep darkness is their morning, and they recognize (יַכִּיר) its terrors, the same verb denied of the light's ways in v. 13. K&D, Ellicott and Pulpit all see John 3:19 to 21 behind the image of light.
This is the hardest section of the chapter. JFB and Cambridge read vv. 18 to 21 as Job quoting, ironically, the friends' popular belief: the sinner is “light upon the waters,” his portion is cursed, Sheol snatches him as drought snatches snow-water, the womb forgets him and the worm finds him sweet. Cambridge suggests it may be “a parody after the popular manner by Job himself.” Benson, Poole and Geneva take the lines as Job's own conviction that judgment comes in the end. Verses 22 to 24 then give Job's counter-picture. In the K&D, Cambridge and JFB reading God prolongs (מָשַׁךְ) the mighty, raises them up even when they despaired of life, and gives them security while “His eyes are upon their ways.” They are exalted, then “are not,” brought low (הֻמְּכוּ), gathered in “like all,” and cut off like ripe ears. Pulpit: Job “minimizes the terrors of their death.” The grain is cut ripe, not early: the wicked die the common death of all.
“Who will prove me a liar (יַכְזִיבֵנִי) and set my word to nothing?” Barnes judges that “the controversy was closed”: Bildad's short reply in ch. 25 does not address the facts. Cambridge adds the cost: Job has won the argument but taken “an almost mortal wound,” since he is left with a God whose rule he cannot call just by the friends' own measure. The book's answer is still to come, from the whirlwind (chs. 38 to 41) and from the God who later says Job spoke rightly of Him (42:7).
⚙ A fallible reading, offered to be tested against Scripture: Job 24 does not teach that God is unjust. It records honestly that, as far as anyone can see in this world, the oppressor often lives secure and dies at a ripe age, and that the godly are not shown when the reckoning will come. Scripture lets this complaint stand inside the canon and does not answer it with a quick formula. The friends' rule (sin is always punished visibly and soon) is refuted here, as Barnes argues, and the Lord Himself later rejects it (42:7). The rest of the canon does not deny Job's facts. It does deny that they are the last word. The times Job asks about are stored up (21:30; Acts 17:31): God “overlooked” (Acts 17:30, cited here by JFB and Barnes) in forbearance, not ignorance, and His eyes were “upon their ways” (v. 23) throughout. Read this way, the chapter invites a reader neither to deny injustice nor to accuse God, but to bring the groans of v. 12 to Him and wait for the day He has appointed. That is offered as one reading; the debated attribution of vv. 18 to 21 means a careful reader should hold it loosely.
The days of reckoning Job could not see were stored up, not cancelled.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The noun תִּפְלָה (tiphlâh, H8604) occurs in only three verses. In Job 1:22 the narrator says Job did not “charge God with tiphlâh.” In 24:12 Job complains that God does not set tiphlâh to the account of the oppressors. The man who would not charge God with wrong now says God charges no one with wrong. Jeremiah 23:13 uses the word for the prophets of Samaria, “an offensive thing.” Cambridge itself points back to 1:22 (“The same word occurred in ch. Job 1:22”). Barnes and JFB record the variant pointing tᵉphillāh (“prayer”), which would make the line mean God disregards the prayer of the oppressed. Both prefer tiphlâh.
Job 1:22 · Jeremiah 23:13
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H8604 tiphlâh (in 3 vv), a rare word; Job 1:22 also shares H2398 châṭâʼ (220 vv). A verbal link within one book, not a quotation; Cambridge independently notes the 1:22 echo
Verse 12's “groan” (יִנְאָקוּ, nāʼaq, H5008) occurs in only two verses of the Hebrew Bible, and the other is Ezekiel 30:24, where Pharaoh “will groan before him with the groans of a mortally wounded man (ḥālāl).” Both verses also use ḥālāl (H2491), “pierced, wounded.” JFB cites Ezekiel 30:24 at this verse, and Poole cites it for ḥălālîm. In Ezekiel the groan of the pierced is the sound of God's judgment arriving. In Job it is the sound of the oppressed while judgment does not come. ⚙ The contrast is the tool's; the shared vocabulary is the Verifier's.
Ezekiel 30:24
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H5008 nâʼaq (in 2 vv, very rare) and H2491 châlâl (in 85 vv), plus H7665 shâbar (142 vv); a lexical echo, not a quotation
The Hophal הֻמְּכוּ (mākak, H4355) in v. 24 is rare (3 verses). Psalm 106:43 uses it of Israel “brought low in their iniquity,” and Ecclesiastes 10:18 of a roof that “sinks” through laziness. All three use it of collapse after a long decline. Job's point is that the mighty are “brought low” only at the end, by the common sinking of death, and not by any visible blow of judgment.
Psalm 106:43 · Ecclesiastes 10:18
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H4355 mâkak (in 3 vv); a rare shared verb, no quotation claimed
In 14:2 Job said of every mortal: “he springs up like a flower and withers (וַיִּמָּל).” Verse 24 uses the same rare verb nāmal (H5243, 4 verses) of the wicked: they are “cut off like heads of grain.” Barnes, Cambridge and Pulpit read the picture as a ripe harvest, a natural death at full age (compare 5:26). ⚙ The repetition makes Job's point in his own vocabulary: the wicked die the same death as everyone (כַּכֹּל, “like all”), with nothing to mark them out.
Job 14:2 · Job 5:26
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H5243 nâmal (in 4 vv) with Job 14:2; Job 5:26 is commentator-cited (Barnes, JFB, Cambridge) as a thematic parallel only
Job 6:5 asks: “Does a wild donkey (pereʼ) bray over grass, or an ox (šôr) low over its fodder (bᵉlîl)?” A well-fed animal does not complain. Chapter 24 uses three of those words again: the widow's šôr is seized (v. 3), the poor become pᵉrāʼîm in the steppe (v. 5), and they reap bᵉlîl, cattle-fodder, for food (v. 6). Isaiah 30:24 uses bᵉlîl for the seasoned fodder of well-cared-for oxen. ⚙ Job's earlier proverb said the fed creature is quiet. These people are less fed than the animals, and so they groan (v. 12).
Job 6:5 · Isaiah 30:24
basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H1098 bᵉlîyl (in 3 vv) and H6501 pereʼ (in 10 vv), plus H7794 shôwr (69 vv) with Job 6:5; H1098 alone with Isaiah 30:24. Rare shared words; the inversion is the tool's reading
Verses 2 to 10 read like a list of the Torah's protections for the weak, each one violated: the landmark (Deuteronomy 19:14; 27:17), the pledged cloak returned at sunset (Exodus 22:26 to 27), the millstone and the widow's garment not to be taken in pledge (Deuteronomy 24:6, 17), gleanings left for the poor (Deuteronomy 24:19), the unmuzzled ox (Deuteronomy 25:4). Ellicott, Barnes, Poole, Gill and Pulpit cite these texts. Gill and Poole add that the wrongs were known “by the light of nature” before Sinai. No quotation is claimed: the landmark texts use gᵉbûl and sûg, while Job has gᵉbûlâh and nāśag. The link is a shared moral pattern.
Deuteronomy 19:14 · Deuteronomy 27:17 · Exodus 22:26 · Deuteronomy 24:17 · Deuteronomy 25:4
basis: Commentator-recorded motif (Ellicott, Barnes, Poole, Gill, Pulpit); not a Verifier lexical match, and the landmark vocabulary differs (H1367 here vs gᵉbûl in Deuteronomy), so no verbal claim
“Those who rebel against the light” (v. 13) is, as Ellicott says, “a very remarkable expression.” Barnes, JFB, K&D and Pulpit all set it beside John 3:19 to 21: “everyone who does evil hates the Light.” K&D says the light of day “stands in deeper, closer relation to the higher light,” and adds Romans 13:12 on the “works of darkness.” The link crosses from Hebrew to Greek, so no shared Strong's number can be claimed. It is a structural link of image and moral logic, held by a wide range of commentators.
John 3:19-21 · Romans 13:12 · Proverbs 2:13
basis: Cross-Testament (Hebrew to Greek): no shared lexeme possible; shared light/darkness moral pattern recorded by Barnes, JFB, K&D, Pulpit, Ellicott. Proverbs 2:13 cited by JFB and Gill as an intra-Hebrew parallel, not Verifier-checked
Barnes, JFB and Cambridge all cite Psalm 73:4 (“they have no struggles in their death”) for Job's claim that the wicked die easily and at full age. Asaph faces the same facts and almost slips (73:2), until he enters the sanctuary and understands “their end” (73:17). ⚙ Job 24 leaves the reader at Asaph's v. 16, before that turn; the canon supplies v. 17.
Psalm 73:4 · Psalm 73:17 · Job 21:13
basis: Commentator-cited thematic parallel (Barnes, JFB, Cambridge; Job 21:13 cited by Ellicott, Barnes, K&D); no Verifier lexical basis recorded, no quotation claimed
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
Job asks why those who know God do not see “His days” (v. 1) and why God does not charge the wrongdoer (v. 12). For v. 12, JFB and Barnes cite Acts 17:30, where God overlooked the times of ignorance. Paul's next sentence gives the answer Job lacked: God “has set a day when He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed” (Acts 17:31). Barnes explicitly compares Job's “His days” with “the day of the Son of Man” (Luke 17:24), and JFB cites 2 Peter 3:10. ⚙ The tool joins these citations: the stored-up times of v. 1 are fixed in the risen Christ, and God's apparent silence is forbearance, not indifference (Romans 3:25 to 26; 2 Peter 3:9).
Acts 17:30-31 · Luke 17:24 · 2 Peter 3:9-10 · Romans 3:25-26
Those who “rebel against the light” and do not “know its ways” (v. 13) are read by Ellicott as anticipating “the teaching of St. John”, and Pulpit names “the light which lighteth every man.” In John the Light is a Person who came into the world, and “men loved darkness rather than light” (John 3:19). The sad pattern of v. 17, darkness counted as morning, is the reverse of the gospel, where “the darkness is passing and the true light already shines” (1 John 2:8). This is the widely-held Christian reading of the image, recorded by Ellicott, Pulpit, K&D and Barnes.
John 1:9 · John 3:19-21 · John 8:12 · 1 John 2:8
Henry, commenting on vv. 18 to 25, turns from the wicked man who dies at ease to “the unequalled sorrows of the Son of God,” beheld “as the sinner's Surety, bearing the curse.” ⚙ The tool takes Henry's turn one step further. In v. 18 the oppressor's portion is “cursed” (tᵉqullal) while he himself seems to slip past it to an easy grave. At the cross the Righteous One died the death of the accursed (Galatians 3:13), and the righteous Judge of v. 1 and the innocent sufferer of chs. 1 to 2 meet in one Person. Henry's link is a classic Reformed reading. The tool's connection to the specific verbs of v. 18 is novel and should be weighed as such.
Galatians 3:13 · Isaiah 53:4-6 · 1 Peter 2:23
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
Text. Several readings are disputed, and this unit flags them where they occur: the written form and Qere of yōdʻô (v. 1, K&D); bᵉlîlô versus bᵉlî lô (v. 6, LXX, Vulgate, Targum per Gill and Poole); mišōd “from the breast” versus a Targumic “from spoil” (v. 9, K&D); mᵉṯîm “men” versus Syriac mēṯîm “the dying” (v. 12, JFB, Cambridge, K&D); tiphlâh “wrong” versus tᵉphillâh “prayer” (v. 12, Barnes, JFB). Translation. At v. 14 the BSB's “When daylight is gone” runs against K&D, Barnes, Cambridge and JFB, who all take lāʼôr as “at dawn.” At v. 22 the BSB's “God drags away the mighty” differs from K&D, Cambridge and JFB (“prolongs, preserves”) and from Benson and Poole (the tyrant draws the mighty to his side). Both are shown in the divergences. Who is speaking in vv. 18 to 21? JFB and Cambridge read Job as quoting, or parodying, the friends; Benson, Poole and Geneva read Job's own belief; Pulpit calls the passage “Locus obscurissimus.” The grand commentary keeps both readings open. Data. The interlinear gloss for v. 19 index 4 (mê·mê, H4325) reads “vvv”, a source-data artefact; it means “waters of.” Several K&D entries are capped in the brief and were quoted only from their visible text. Barnes's entry filed under v. 11 is introductory material on travel and caravans, not comment on the verse, and was not used. Ellicott's “Job 1:9” at v. 13 evidently means John 1:9. Henry's single comment on vv. 1 to 12 is repeated across those verses in the source and is cited once. Synthesis. Every line marked ⚙ is this tool's fallible inference.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)