Job 24

Job 24:1

24:1-12 Since nothing is hidden from the Almighty, Job can’t understand why He doesn’t give the solution to the problem of the wicked’s prosperity to those who know Him. He enumerates in detail the horrible injustice in this worldthe crimes of the oppressors and the sufferings of the oppressed. Ridout comments: It is an awful picture of facts only too well-known to themand to us. How can Eliphaz make such facts fit in with his theory that evil is always punished in this life? But, oh, how can God close His eyes to these things, and afflict a faithful man instead of these wrong doers? This is Job’s great trouble, and for this he has found no solution. Job complains of the apparent failure of God’s governing of the world (v. 12): The dying groan in the city, And the souls of the wounded cry out; Yet God does not charge them with wrong. 24:13-17 Next Job describes the rebellious murderer, adulterer, and burglar. All three favor the night for their activities; the morning is the same to them as the shadow of death. 24:18-25 In spite of the fact that these wicked sinners should be cursed in the earth and they should be remembered no more, God apparently gives them security. Job maintains that the wicked don’t die any more violently than anyone else. He defies anyone to disprove this. Since Bildad’s speech is so short, Zophar has none, and Job’s response is so long, some Bible scholars have suggested that verses 18-25 are not really Job at all. Some modern versions even rearrange the text here (and elsewhere) in a very conjectural way. Andersen, who is “not convinced that Job could not have uttered these words,” describes what some have done with them: We should not too hastily remove these words from Job’s lips, just because they don’t sound like what we think he should say. This has been done in three ways: to remove them altogether as a pious gloss which makes Job sound more orthodox than he is; to transfer them to one of the friends, either Bildad (NAB), or Zophar (Pope); to take them as a quotation by Job of what his friends say (RSV, which adds You say, and identifies verses 21-24 as Job’s rejoinder; or Gordis, who takes all of verses 18-24 as the quotation).