properly · conjunction + preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
thief
כַגַּנָּֽבkha.ga.Nav
H1590
a stealer · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 10:8-10 He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poo…
Micah 2:1-2 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of…
1 Thessalonians 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
Revelation 3:3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a…
2 Samuel 11:14-17 And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
Luke 12:39 And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his h…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 24:13-17
These verses describe another sort of sinners who therefore go unpunished, because they go undiscovered. They rebel against the light, Job 24:13. Some understand it figuratively: they sin against the light of nature, the light of God's law, and that of their own consciences; they profess to know God, but they rebel against the knowledge they have of him, and will not be guided and governed, commanded and controlled, by it. Others understand it literally: they have the day-light and choose the night as the most advantageous season for their wickedness. Sinful works are therefore called works of darkness, because he that does evil hates the light (Joh 3:20), knows not the ways thereof, that is…
with the light--at early dawn, while still dark, when the traveller in the East usually sets out, and the poor laborer to his work; the murderous robber lies in wait then (Psa 10:8).
is as a thief--Thieves in the East steal while men sleep at night; robbers murder at early dawn. The same man who steals at night, when light dawns not only robs, but murders to escape detection.
John Gill on Job 24:14
The murderer rising with the light,.... The light of the morning, before the sun is risen, about the time the early traveller is set out on his journey, and men go to distant markets to buy and sell goods, and the poor labourer goes forth to his work; then is the time for one that is used to commit robbery and murder to rise from his bed, or from his lurking place, in a cave or a thicket, where he has lain all night, in order to meet with the above persons: and so
killeth the poor and needy; takes away from them the little they have, whether money or provisions, and kills them because they have no more, and that they may not be evidence against him; it may be meant of the poor saints and pe…
"Therefore he delivered them to darkness. He let them ignore the judgment of God. "And suddenly like a thief:" this day will seize them.
The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief. MYSTICAL INTERPRETATION Whereas the murderer in the killing of his neighbours is wont to come upon them chiefly in the silence of the night, why is it that he is said in this place to 'rise with the light' in order to 'kill the poor and needy,' whilst 'in the night' he is described 'to be as a thief?' Now forasmuch as the letter in the bare words alone is not consistent with itself, we are called back for the investigating the hidden meanings of the Spirit. In Holy Scripture the 'morning' is sometimes used to be put for the coming of the Lord's Incarnation, sometimes for the coming of the henceforth dreadful and searching Judge, sometimes for the prosperity of the present life. Thus the coming of the Lord's Incarnation proved a 'morning,' as the Prophet saith, The morning cometh, and also the night; in that both the beginnings of the new light shone forth in the appearing of our Redeemer, and yet the shades of their misbelief were not cleared off from the hearts of the persecutors. Again, by the 'morning' the coming of the Judge is denoted. Whence it is said by the Psalmist, Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land. As also when personating the Elect, he says, In the morning will I stand in Thy presence, and will look up. Again, by the 'morning' this life's prosperity is represented. as where it is said by Solomon, Woe to thee, O land, when thy King is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning. For whereas the morning is the first part of the day and the evening the last, we ought not ever to be regaled by this life's prosperity which goes first, but by those things which at the end of the day, that is at the termination of the world, follow after. Thus those 'eat in the morning,' who by this world's successes are lifted up, and whilst they passionately interest themselves with present things, pay no heed to the things of the future. For whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. So the 'murderer rises up with the earliest dawn,' in that every wicked man is set up in the glory of the present life, and bears down the life of those, who whilst they thirst after the glory to follow, as it were anxiously look out to be filled in the evening. For the bad man in this world whilst seizing on the dignity of transitory power spreads himself out the more cruelly…
Murder · Often committed by night — Often committed by night
Night · Favourable to the purposes of the wicked — Favourable to the purposes of the wicked
Theft · The wicked: Commit, under shelter of the night — The wicked: Commit, under shelter of the night
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
13 Others are those that rebel against the light,
They will know nothing of its ways,
And abide not in its paths.
14 The murderer riseth up at dawn,
He slayeth the sufferer and the poor,
And in the night he acteth like a thief.
15 And the eye of the adulterer watcheth for the twilight;
He thinks: "no eye shall recognise me,"
And he putteth a veil before his face.
With המּה begins a new turn in the description of the moral confusion which has escaped God's observation; it is to be translated neither as retrospective, "since they" (Ewald), nor as distinctive, "they even" (Bttch.), i.e., the powerful in distinction from the oppressed, but "those" (for המה corresponds to our use of "those," אלּה…
ignores their moaning: It appeared to Job that contrary to God’s own character (Exod 2:23-24; Ps 12:5), God neither relieved the plight of the wronged (Job 24:2-12) nor hindered the wicked from harming their victims (24:13-17).
Rashi on Job 24:14
Should one rise in daylight If they would rise by day, they would slay the wayfarers.
and at night he would be like a thief to dig under houses.
