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
Nehemiah 5:5 Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters…
2 Kings 4:1 Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowe…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 24:1-12
Job's friends had been very positive in it that they should soon see the fall of wicked people, how much soever they might prosper for a while. By no means, says Job; though times are not hidden from the Almighty, yet those that know him do not presently see his day, Job 24:1. 1. He takes it for granted that times are not hidden from the Almighty; past times are not hidden from his judgment (Ecc 3:15), present times are not hidden from his providence (Mat 10:29), future times are not hidden from his prescience, Act 15:18. God governs the world, and therefore we may be sure he takes cognizance of it. Bad times are not hidden from him, though the bad men that make the times bad say one to anot…
from the breast--of the widowed mother. Kidnapping children for slaves. Here Job passes from wrongs in the desert to those done among the habitations of men.
pledge--namely, the garment of the poor debtor, as Job 24:10 shows.
John Gill on Job 24:9
They pluck the fatherless from the breast,.... Either on purpose to starve it, which must be extremely barbarous; or to sell it to be brought up a slave; or by obliging the mother to wean it before the due time, that she might be the better able to do work for them they obliged her to. Mr. Broughton renders the words, "of mischievousness they rob the fatherless"; that is, through the greatness of the mischief they do, as Ben Gersom interprets it; or through the exceeding mischievous disposition they are of; of which this is a flagrant instance; or
"they rob the fatherless of what remains for him after spoiling (n),''
or devastation, through the plunder of his father's substance now dead, w…
9 They tear the fatherless from the breast,
And defraud the poor.
10 Naked, they slink away without clothes,
And hungering they bear the sheaves.
11 Between their walls they squeeze out the oil;
They tread the wine-presses, and suffer thirst.
12 In the city vassals groan, And the soul of the oppressed crieth out -
And Eloah heedeth not the anomaly.
The accentuation of Job 24:9 (יגזלו with Dech, משׁד with Munach) makes the relation of שׁד יתום genitival. Heidenheim (in a MS annotation to Kimchi's Lex.) accordingly badly interprets: they plunder from the spoil of the orphan; Ramban better: from the ruin, i.e., the shattered patrimony; both appeal to the Targum, which translates מביזת יתום, li…
The Church Fathers
"They have snatched the fatherless from the breast." They have lamentably and mercilessly taken away the child who still nursed and hanged from his mother's breast. "And they have deprived the outcast," that is, they have also deprived the outcast of his properties by taking away what he had.
"They robbed the orphan with the udder. Orphans and widows usually designate the Church: it is the persecuted people. - "And they humbled him who had fallen"; or that God has abandoned him, that all other help has failed him: it is an extreme hardship not to spare such misfortunes.
They have done violence in preying on the fatherless, and have spoiled the common folk of the poor. When Heretics lack the good fortune of the present life, to weak minds they recommend by words of soft persuasion things that are wrong; but if the good fortune of the present time at all smiles upon them, they do not cease even by violence to draw those they are able. So that by the title of 'fatherless' they are denoted who are still delicate, being set within the pale of Holy Church, whose life their merciful Father by dying preserved, who are already brought forward to a good purpose of mind, but are not yet confirmed with any efficacy in good deeds. The Heretics, then, 'do violence in preying on the fatherless,' in that upon the weak minds of the faithful they make assault with violence in words and deeds. But 'the common folk of the poor' are the uninstructed multitude, which, if it had the riches of true knowledge, would never part with the covering of its faith. For genuine teachers are like a kind of senators within the bounds of Holy Church, who, while they multiply knowledge in the heart, abound in the true riches in themselves. But Heretics 'spoil the common sort of the poor,' in that whilst the learned they cannot, all the unlearned by their pestilent preaching they strip naked of the covering of the faith.
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
Creditor · OPPRESSIONS OF — OPPRESSIONS OF
Creditors · Often cruel in exacting debts — Often cruel in exacting debts
Debt · SECURITY FOR — SECURITY FOR
Dishonesty · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Homicide · 24:22; — 24:22;
Landmarks · Protected from fraudulent removal — Protected from fraudulent removal
Orphan · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Poor, The · The wicked: Oppress — The wicked: Oppress
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).
widow’s child . . . security for a loan: See 2 Kgs 4:1; Neh 5:1-5; Matt 18:25.
Rashi on Job 24:9
from the breast of the orphan The sucking of the orphan, the source of his food and sustenance, as in (Isa. 60:16), “and the breast of kings you shall suck.”
they take a pledge Heb. יחבלו, an expression of (Exod. 22:25), “If you take a pledge (חבל תחבל)”; (Ezek.18:16), “he did not take a pledge (חבל לא חבל).”
