Job 24:2

A LIST OF EVIL DEEDS COMMITTED BY THE WICKED AGAINST OTHERS

"There are that remove the landmarks;

They violently take away flocks, and feed them.

They drive away the ass of the fatherless;

They take the widow's ox for a pledge.

They turn the needy out of the way;

The poor of the earth all hide themselves.

Behold, as wild asses in the desert

They go forth to their work, seeking food;

The wilderness yieldeth them bread for their children.

They cut their provender in the field;

And they glean the vintage of the wicked.

They lie all night naked without clothing,

And have no covering in the cold.

They are wet with the showers of the mountains,

And embrace the rock for want of a shelter.

There are that pluck the fatherless from the breast,

And take a pledge of the poor.

So that they go about naked without clothing,

And being hungry they carry the sheaves.

They make oil within the walls of these men;

They tread their winepresses and suffer thirst.

From out of the populous city, men groan,

And the soul of the wounded crieth out:

Yet God regardeth not the folly."

The picture that emerges here is that of the heartless oppressors of the poor. These wicked men steal land by moving landmarks (Job 24:2), they steal whole flocks of animals and keep them (Job 24:3), they steal an orphan's ass, exact an unjust pledge from widows (Job 24:4) and force their poor laborers who work for them to scavenge for food in the mountains, where they have no residences, and are not sufficiently clothed, and where they are often cold and hungry (Job 24:5-7).

"The soul of the wounded crieth out, yet God regardeth not the folly" (Job 24:12).They violate the spirit of the Law of God (Deuteronomy 25:4) by denying those who tread their winepresses even a taste of the juice, and by forbidding them to eat of the grain as they carry the sheaves of the wicked (Job 24:10,11). Yet all of this wickedness does not result in any direct interference of God in the affairs of such evil men.

Job's argument throughout these verses is simply that the wicked are not judged and punished for such evil immediately, but that they get away with it, at least in many instances.

Driver and others have complained that much of the text here is obscure, damaged, uncertain, corrupt, etc.[3] In spite of such objections, it is clear enough what Job was telling us in this review of what the wealthy wicked were doing to the poor.