an eye (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct
adulterer
נֹאֵ֨ףno.'Ef
H5003
to commit adultery · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
waiteth
שָׁ֤מְרָֽהSha.me.rah
H8104
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
twilight
נֶ֣שֶׁףNe.shef
H5399
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
saying
לֵ֭אמֹרLe.mor
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
eye
עָ֑יִן'A.yin
H5869
an eye (literally or figuratively) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
see
תְשׁוּרֵ֣נִיte.shu.Re.ni
H7789
to spy out · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular + pronominal suffix
disguiseth
וְסֵ֖תֶרve.Se.ter
H5643
a cover (in a good or a bad · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
face
פָּנִ֣יםpa.Nim
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · noun, common masculine plural 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 10:11 He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.
Proverbs 7:9-10 In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:
Psalms 94:7 Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.
Proverbs 6:32-35 But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.
Ezekiel 8:12 Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his i…
Ezekiel 9:9 Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of…
Genesis 38:14-15 And she put her widow’s garments off from her, and covered her with a vail, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is by the w…
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…
The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight,.... Not of the morning, which would not give him time enough to satiate his lust, but of the evening, that he may have the whole night before him to gratify his impure desires, and that these may be indulged in the most private and secret manner; and having fixed the time in the evening with his adulteress, he waits with impatience, and earnestly wishes and longs for its coming, and diligently looks out for the close of day, and takes the first opportunity of the darkness of the evening to set out on his adventure, see Proverbs 7:7; and the "eye" is particularly observed, not only because that is the instrument by which the twilight is…
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…
The Church Fathers
"The eyes of adultery spy on darkness. Here he wishes to show in what darkness impurity throws the wicked: it is not in those that adulterers and all other sinners, those of the night, seek, not to be seen during the day but in this darkness that the morning has not dissipated.
The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me. And disguiseth his face. There is nothing to hinder but that this may be understood even after the latter, seeing that he who desires to commit adultery, seeks out the dark. But whereas it is a sentence uttered against Heretics, it is meet that this thing which is declared be understood in a mystical sense. Thus Paul says, For we are not as many that adulterate the word of God. For the adulterer seeks not offspring, but pleasure in the act of carnal copulation. And every bad man, and that is also a slave to vain-glory, is rightly said to 'adulterate' the word of God, because by the sacred word of Revelation he desires not to beget children to God, but to exhibit his own knowledge. For he that is drawn to speak by lust of glory, bestows his pains rather on gratification than the production of children. And it is rightly added there, No eye shall see me; because the adultery which is committed in the interior is very hard indeed that it should be penetrated by the eye of man. Which same the froward soul commits with the more assurance, in proportion as it does not fear being seen by men, whom it may blush at. Moreover it is to be known that as he that commits adultery joins to himself unlawfully the flesh of another man's wife, so all heretics, while they carry off the faithful soul into their own error, are as it were bearing off another's wife, in this way; because the soul which is spiritually wedded to God and joined to Him as if in a kind of bridechamber of love, when by wicked persuasions it is led on into corruptness of doctrine, is as it were like the wife of another defiled by the corrupter. It is for this reason that the adulterer 'disguises his face;' that he may not be known. Now every man who either in thinking or in acting lives badly, 'disguises his face,' because by corruptness in doctrine or in practice he is tending to this, that he should not be able to be recognised in the Judgment by Almighty God. Hence He shall say to certain persons at the end, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity. And what is the 'face' of the human heart, save the likeness of God? which same face the bad man 'disguiseth,' that he may not be able to be known, when his life discomposes either by bad deeds, or by the error of misbelief. But every such person when he…
Dictionary and topics
Homicide · 24:22; — 24:22;
Night · Favourable to the purposes of the wicked — Favourable to the purposes of the wicked
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).
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 24:15
And the eye of the adulterer And the adulterer among them would wait until evening, saying...
a mask And he puts a mask on his face to commit a transgression, for the generation of the Flood was suspected of all these: of robbery, for it is stated (Gen. 6:11): “and the earth was filled with violence,” and of immorality, for it is stated (ibid. verse 12): “for all flesh had corrupted [its way on the earth].”
