properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
as
יַחְדָּ֨וyach.Dav
H3162
properly · adverb
death
צַלְמָ֑וֶתtzal.Ma.vet
H6757
shade of death · noun, common masculine singular absolute
know
יַ֝כִּ֗ירya.Kir
H5234
properly · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
terrors
בַּלְה֥וֹתbal.Hot
H1091
alarm · noun, common feminine plural construct
death
צַלְמָֽוֶתtzal.Ma.vet
H6757
shade of death · 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
Job 3:5 Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
Psalms 73:18-19 Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.
Jeremiah 2:26 As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their…
2 Corinthians 5:10-11 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath…
Revelation 6:16-17 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb…
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…
They shrink from the "morning" light, as much as other men do from the blackest darkness ("the shadow of death").
if one know--that is, recognize them. Rather, "They know well (are familiar with) the terrors of," &c. [UMBREIT]. Or, as MAURER, "They know the terrors of (this) darkness," namely, of morning, the light, which is as terrible to them as darkness ("the shadow of death") is to other men.
John Gill on Job 24:17
For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death,.... It is as disagreeable, and as hateful, and as terrible to them as the grossest and thickest darkness can be to others. The word is to be rendered either "alike" or "altogether", and not "even", as in our version: "the morning is to them equally" or "together" (w); that is, to the murderer, robber, thief, adulterer, and housebreaker, "as the shadow of death"; alike disagreeable to them all; or "the shadow of death is to them together" or "alike as the morning"; what the morning is to others, exceeding pleasant and delightful, that to them is the shadow of death, or the darkest night; they love darkness rather than light:
if one know…
"Because the shadow of death always lives in them. When night recedes, the shadow of death does not abandon them.
If the morning suddenly appear, it is to them even as the shadow of death. He is light above the face of the water. Let their portion be cursed in the earth; and let him not walk by the way of the vineyards. For the wicked look for the afflicting of the righteous, and long to see them in distress, and 'in the dark they dig through houses,' when the heart of the innocent but weak ones they corrupt in the season of their casting down by the worst mode of discourse. But it commonly happens that when they see the good in a sunken state, on a sudden, by the secret appointment of God, any righteous one that seemed to be borne down is upheld by some share of the world's power, and the prosperity of the present life smiles on him, whom the darkness of adversity before overlaid. Which same prosperity of that man when the wicked behold, as it has been said, they are troubled. For directly they turn back to their own hearts, they bring back before their minds' eye whatever they remember themselves to have done amiss, they fear for every particular sinful habit to be avenged in them, and by the same means by which he that receives power is made to shine the bad man who dreads to be corrected is darkened in sorrow. And so it is well said, If the morning suddenly appear, they think it is the shadow of death. For 'the morning' is the mind of the righteous man, which quitting the darkness of its sin, now breaks out unto the light of eternity, as it is said of Holy Church likewise; Who is she that looketh forth as the morning? Therefore in the same measure that every righteous person shining with the light of righteousness is in the present life reared to a height with honours, in the same measure before the eyes of the wicked comes the 'darkness of death,' in that they who remember that they have done bad things are in fear of being corrected. For they desire always to have a loose given them in their iniquities, to live free from correction, and from sin to have delight; whose fatal mirth is itself appropriately described in the words that are directly introduced, And they walk so in darkness, as in the light. For with a froward mind they delight in deeds of wickedness, through their sin they are day by day being dragged to punishment, and are full of assurance. Hence it is said by Solomon, And there are wicked men that are as secure as if they had the deeds of the…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Homicide · 24:22; — 24:22;
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).
16 In the dark they dig through houses,
By day they shut themselves up,
They will know nothing of the light.
17 For the depth of night is to them even as the dawn of the morning,
For they know the terrors of the depth of night.
The handiwork of the thief, which is but slightly referred to in Job 24:14, is here more particularly described. The indefinite subj. of חתר, as is manifest from what follows, is the band of thieves. The בּ, which is elsewhere joined with chtr (to break into anything), is here followed by the acc. בּתּים (to be pronounced bâttim, not bottim),
(Note: Vid., Aben-Ezra on Exo 12:7. The main proof that it is to be pronounced bâttim is, that written exactly it is בּתּים,…
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 24:17
For together morning is to them [as] the shadow of death For by day they were locked in, and at night they would go to their tunnel, and they were not at all afraid of the demons.
for he recognizes the terrors of the shadow of death Everyone could recognize the terrifying demons, and he did not fear them. Our Sages, however, explained: By day, they would seal for themselves—By day they would chart the location of the cellar of the house and a rich man’s treasurehouse, for they would deposit balsamum oil with wealthy householders, knowing that he (sic) would put it in his (sic) treasurehouse, and at night they would smell and go there and dig into there.
