Job 24:9 - Exposition

They pluck the fatherless from the breast . Other oppressors, not of the marauding class, but dwellers in towns ( Job 24:12 ), are so cruel that they tear the unweaned child of the debtor from the mother's breast, as satisfaction for a debt, and carry him off into slavery. And take a pledge of the poor ; literally, take in pledge that which is on the poor— in other words, their clothing. They will not lend to them on any other terms, and so force them to part with their garments, and go about naked. Even Hebrew creditors seem to have done this ( Exodus 22:26 ; Deuteronomy 24:12 , Deuteronomy 24:13 ); and the Mosaic Law did not forbid the practice, but only required the creditor to let the debtor have his garment at night, that he might sleep in it ( Exodus 22:27 ; Deuteronomy 24:13 ).