Job 24:3 - Exposition

They drive away the ass of the fatherless . This was another form of oppression. "Whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed?" says Samuel, on laying down his judgeship ( 1 Samuel 12:3 ). The "fatherless" were particularly liable to such ill treatment, seeing that they had lost their natural protector. They take the widow's ox for a pledge . It may be true that this was nowhere a legal offence, not even among the Hebrews (Lee); but it was a real act of oppression, and forms a fitting counterpart to the injury done to the orphan. (On the natural tendency of selfish men to bear hard on these two classes, see Exodus 22:22 ; Deuteronomy 24:17 ; Deuteronomy 27:19 ; Psalms 94:6 ; Isaiah 1:23 ; Isaiah 10:2 ; Jeremiah 5:28 ; Zechariah 7:10 .)