Job: Why Are Times Not Laid Up?
1 “Why aren’t times laid up by the Almighty? Why don’t those who know him see his days? 2 There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them. 3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. 4 They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves. 5 Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness yields them bread for their children. 6 They cut their food in the field. They glean the vineyard of the wicked. 7 They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold. 8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of a shelter. 9 There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor, 10 so that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves. 11 They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread wine presses, and suffer thirst. 12 From 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. 14 The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief. 15 The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me.’ He disguises his face. 16 In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don’t know the light. 17 For 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. 19 Drought and heat consume the snow waters, so does Sheol those who have sinned. 20 The womb will forget him. The worm will feed sweetly on him. He will be no more remembered. Unrighteousness will be broken as a tree. 21 He devours the barren who don’t bear. He shows no kindness to the widow. 22 Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life. 23 God gives them security, and they rest in it. His eyes are on their ways. 24 They 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. 25 If it isn’t so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?”
Job turns from his own case to the poor of the world, and asks why there is no day set for the crimes that everyone can see.
The question that opens the chapter is about the calendar. Why aren't times laid up by the Almighty? Why don't those who know him see his days? Job 24:1.
He is asking why there are no assize days — no fixed sessions at which accounts are settled. It is the sharpest form of his complaint, and it has stopped being about him.
What follows is the longest passage in the book about other people's suffering, and it is remarkable that it comes from a man in his condition. Job has spent twenty chapters on his own case. Here he stops, and looks around.
The crimes are property crimes against those with no protection. Landmarks removed, flocks taken by force, the donkey of the fatherless driven off, the widow's ox taken as security Job 24:2–3.
And then the victims, described with an attention nobody else in the book gives them. They forage in the wilderness like wild donkeys Job 24:5. They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold, wet with mountain rain, embrace the rock for lack of a shelter Job 24:7–8.
The two verses that follow are the most economical description of exploitation in Scripture. They carry the sheaves while hungry; they tread wine presses, and suffer thirst Job 24:10–11. Men who handle food all day and are not fed by it. The work is done inside the walls of the men who own them.
Then the summary, and it is an accusation: from out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn't regard the folly Job 24:12.
Job is not saying that God cannot see. He is saying that nothing is being done, which is a different and harder charge, and he brings it on behalf of people who are not him.
The second half turns to those who work in the dark — the murderer who rises with the light and kills the poor, the adulterer waiting for twilight and saying no eye will see me, the housebreaker who digs through walls at night Job 24:14–16. For all of them the morning is to all of them like thick darkness Job 24:17: exposure is what they fear, so the daylight is their terror.
The closing verses concede that such men do finally die and are forgotten Job 24:20 Job 24:24, which is what the friends have been insisting. Job's point is about the interval. God gives them security, and they rest in it Job 24:23 — for a lifetime, and the widow and the orphan they stripped do not live to see the end of it.
And he closes with a challenge nobody takes up: if it isn't so now, who will prove me a liar? Job 24:25. Bildad's answer is six verses long, and Zophar has none.
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