Job 24:17 - Exposition

For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death . They hate the morning light. It is associated in their minds with the idea of detection; for when it breaks in upon them unexpectedly in the midst of their ill deeds, detection commonly follows; and detection is a true "shadow of death," for it commonly means the gallows. If one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death; rather, for they know the terrors of the shadow of death ( see the Revised Version). It is a familiar experience to them; as, whenever crime is severely punished, it is to the criminal class generally.