Job 24:8

They are wet with the showers of the mountains,.... They that are without any clothes to cover them, lying down at the bottom of a hill or mountain, where the clouds often gather, and there break, or

Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof. Instances of the wicked doing the worst deeds with seeming impunity. Some - the wicked.

They, i.e. the poor, being stripped of their raiment, and forced away from their houses. With the showers of the mountains; with the rain water, which in great showers run down from the rocks or mountains into the caves or holes in the sides of them, to which they fled for shelter. Embrace the rock, i.e. are glad when they can find a cavern or cleft of a rock in which they may have some protection against the injuries of the weather, and a hiding-place from the fury of their oppressors. Compare .

Job 24:8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.Ver. 8. They are wet with the showers of the mountains] Wet they are, but not at all refreshed, as this word (here only found in the Bible) signifieth sometimes among the Rabbis. Cold comfort they find abroad; and at home they dare not abide, lest rich men should oppress them and draw them before the judgment seats, James 2:6, or drag them to prison for refusing their drudgery. Hence they are forced to live in the mountains and desert places, in extreme misery. And embrace the rock for want of a shelter] Like conies or wild beasts, glad of any lurking place that may keep them out of the hands of unreasonable and wicked men. What hardship have many worthy men in all ages suffered from persecutors and oppressors (in Dioclesian’ s days especially), driven out of house and harbour, and glad to take up in any hole, there to lie on the cold stone instead of a warm bed (as that good duchess of Suffolk, with that noble gentleman her husband, did in the Low Countries, whither they fled from the Marian persecution), till, as Elijah once under the juniper, they wish themselves out of the world? Iterum hic disce gratias Deo agere, saith Lavater. Here again learn to give thanks to God for this great benefit, if thou mayest stay at home, and not be forced to flee for thy life, or for conscience’ sake; for home is home, as we say, and very desirable; and the apostle reckons it for a piece of his sufferings that he was ανεστιος, and had no settled station, no certain dwelling place, αστατουμεν, 1 Corinthians 4:11.

Verse 8. They are wet with the showers of the mountains] Mr. Good thinks that torrents, not showers, is the proper translation of the original זרם zerem; but I think showers of the mountain strictly proper. I have seen many of these in mountainous countries, where the tails of water-spouts have been intercepted and broken, and the outpouring of them would be incredible to those who have never witnessed similar phenomena. The rain fell in torrents, and produced torrents on the land, carrying away earth and stones and every thing before them, scooping out great gullies in the sides of the mountains. Mountain torrents are not produced but by such extraordinary outpourings of rain, formed either by water-spouts, or by vast masses of clouds intercepted and broken to pieces by the mountain tops. And embrace the rock for want of a shelter.] In such cases as that related above, the firm rock is the only shelter which can be found, or safely trusted.

8. The mountain rains, more violent than even those in the plain, drench these thinly-clad outcasts; and they “embrace the rock,” i. e. huddle in closely under its ledge.

They are wet with the showers of the mountains - That is, the poor persons, or the travelers whom they have robbed. Hills collect the clouds, and showers seem to pour down from the mountains.

8. Showers — Better, Storms. Embrace the rock — In order to cover at least some part of the body.