Read & explore together
Job: Judgment for the Wicked
Job 24 asks why God’s times are not plainly seen. In this speech, Job describes grave wrongs against vulnerable people, then people who rebel against the light, and finally the tension of their temporary security and their passing end.
Understanding the passage
Listening in context
This passage is wisdom and dialogue spoken by Job. He begins with a question about the Almighty’s times, describes oppression of the poor and wounded, speaks of people who rebel against the light and act in darkness, and then reflects on God’s power, God’s seeing, and how such people are brought low.
Job 24:1–25Main takeaway
Job 24 presents Job’s complaint that justice is not always quickly visible, even though the wicked harm others, avoid the light, and do not remain forever.
Look closely at the words
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Job asks why God’s times are not plainly seenThe passage begins with Job’s question, not a settled explanation. He asks why times are not laid up by the Almighty and why those who know him do not see his days.
Explanation
The passage begins with Job’s question, not a settled explanation. He asks why times are not laid up by the Almighty and why those who know him do not see his days. This opening frames the whole speech as a struggle over delayed justice, God’s timing, and visible judgment.
02The vulnerable suffer under open injusticeJob first lists wrongs done against helpless people. Landmarks are moved, flocks seized, and a widow’s ox taken.
Explanation
Job first lists wrongs done against helpless people. Landmarks are moved, flocks seized, and a widow’s ox taken. The needy are pushed aside and the poor hide. They search for food, glean for survival, lie without clothing, endure cold and rain, and labour while hungry and thirsty. Even in the city, groans and cries rise.
03Some rebel against the lightJob then says these people rebel against the light. They do not know its ways or stay in its paths.
Explanation
Job then says these people rebel against the light. They do not know its ways or stay in its paths. The murderer rises with the light to kill the poor and needy. The adulterer waits for twilight and hides his face. Thieves break in during darkness and avoid the day. Morning is like thick darkness to them.
04Job speaks of both their end and their temporary securityThe closing lines speak in two directions. The wicked are described as passing away, being forgotten, and being broken.
Explanation
The closing lines speak in two directions. The wicked are described as passing away, being forgotten, and being broken. Yet Job also says God preserves the mighty, gives them security, and keeps his eyes on their ways. Their exalted state lasts only a little while before they are brought low, and Job ends by challenging anyone to disprove him.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01Which people are especially harmed in Job’s description of injustice?
02How does Job connect wrongdoing with the light and the dark?
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Job 24:1–25
1“Why aren’t times laid up by the Almighty? Why don’t those who know him see his days?
2There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.
3They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
4They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.
5Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them bread for their children.
6They cut their food in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked.
7They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.
8They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter.
9There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor,
10so that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.
11They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst.
12From out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn’t regard the folly.
13“These are of those who rebel against the light. They don’t know its ways, nor stay in its paths.
14The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief.
15The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me.’ He disguises his face.
16In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don’t know the light.
17For the morning is to all of them like thick darkness, for they know the terrors of the thick darkness.
18“They are foam on the surface of the waters. Their portion is cursed on the earth. They don’t turn into the way of the vineyards.
19Drought and heat consume the snow waters, so does Sheol those who have sinned.
20The womb will forget him. The worm will feed sweetly on him. He will be no more remembered. Unrighteousness will be broken as a tree.
21He devours the barren who don’t bear. He shows no kindness to the widow.
22Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life.
23God gives them security, and they rest in it. His eyes are on their ways.
24They are exalted; yet a little while, and they are gone. Yes, they are brought low, they are taken out of the way as all others, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.
25If it isn’t so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?”