Commentary for Job 24:27

Why were the times not hidden from the Almighty? This is a plaint. Why were the times of man’s days not hidden from the Holy One, blessed be He, that He should not know the day of man’s death? Perhaps He would not hasten the retribution, and the day of death would precede it.

Job ends his rebuttal of Eliphaz’s rationalization of his suffering by repeating his assertion that since God is above time, He does not rule over those voluntary acts that occur under time and which change with time, for His Knowledge cannot be subject to time. God has no sense of time as any student of divinity will tell you.⁶This verse (Ch. 24:1) seems to belong to the end of Chapter 23 rather than to the beginning of Chapter 24.

And He Who knows him should not see his days Of the day of man, like (Gen. 29:14), “a month of days (ימים),” (which is translated into Aramaic as “from time to time.”) [Another explanation is:] Why are those who are close and who love the Holy One, blessed be He, unable to see the end of His ways and His traits?

This [word] ימיו, His days, denotes the way He acted in His time, like (below 27:6), “my heart will not reproach me because of my days.” [See Rashi ad loc.] Now what are the puzzling traits?

[There are some who] remove the landmarks Those who habitually remove the landmarks, who purchase fields adjoining the fields of others, and at night widen their [own] borders by placing their fences at night within the territory of their neighbors. (This is the meaning of removing the landmarks, which is translated into Aramaic as מְשַׁנֶּה, changing, because they would change the boundaries.) And they violently take away a flock and pasture it.

Job now turns to the solution suggested by Eliphaz to the problem of the prosperity of the wicked, namely, that it is necessary for the existence of free-will. He starts his counter-argument by pointing to the existence of those evil-doers who pillage the weak and needy. If Providence really exists and if it really cares, why, he asks, does it not remove these scourges from the face of the earth.

They lead away the orphan’s donkey and commit all the evils stated in the chapter. The end of the matter is that “God does not impute it for unseemliness” (verse 12), to let them know their iniquity and to furnish them with their recompense.

the poor of the land hide together because they fear them.

And he says: Behold, [as] wild donkeys in the desert who are used to the desert, to lie in wait for the passersby.

they go out to their work and what is the work? seeking prey They seek to prey.

the wilderness yields bread for his young men For the wicked man’s servants and young men, the wilderness and the desert supply food for their needs, for from there he seizes and eats and steals what they eat.

for...young men They are the ones who go with him to rob, as in (Gen. 14:24), “only what the young men have eaten.”

In the field of others.

But nothing happens to these evil-doers. It is their victims and not they who suffer. Deprived of their land and livestock, and hence of their independence, those they have impoverished now work for them under conditions of total misery and exploitation.

his produce Heb. בְּלִילוֹ [like] יְבוּלוּ, his produce.

they reap to steal it.

and the wicked gather the plants of the vineyard Heb. יְלַקֵּשׁוּ. And [from] the vineyards of others these wicked men take their fruit; espreinment in Old French. They take their לֶקֶש. לֶקֶש is an expression of a growth of produce, as in (Amos 7:1), at the beginning of the shooting up of the grain, which Jonathan renders. צִמוּחַ, growing. And so did Rabbi Eleazar [Hakalir] establish (in the Hoshanah “Soil from curse”): produce לֶקֶש) from locusts. (Another interpretation: and they delay the vineyard of the wicked. They delay it from destruction, because they eat up [the vineyards] of the poor and the orphans. יְלַקֵּשׁוּ is like (below 29:23), “and they opened their mouth (למלקוש) for a long time,” and like (Gen. 30:42), “and the late ones (לקישיא) were Laban’s.”

They make them lie all night naked They make the poor lie all night.

without clothing and without a cover because they took their cover.

From the stream that flows from the mountains, these naked people became wet and damp because they have no cover. They have no refuge under which to shelter themselves.

they embrace the rocks They hide in the crevices in the rocks, and even there the stream flows down and sprays on them, soaking them. רָטוֹב is the Aramaic for לַח wet, and whoever is not dried is called לַח.

moist (moite in Old French).

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).”

They made go They made him go without clothing.

and [from] the hungry they carried off the sheaves And from the hungry they took the sheaves of gleaning [which are left for the poor]. It may also be interpreted thus: And those who were carrying the sheaves are hungry, because they were robbed of them and so they remain hungry.

Between their rows they make oil The owners of the olive trees make oil.

they tread the winepresses The owners of the vineyards.

but they are thirsty after a while, because these wicked men rob them of them [the wine].

Between their rows It seems to me that they pile up the olives in rows in the oil press and the oil flows between them.

From the city people groan The people and the dignitaries of the city groan because of those robbers.

does not impute it for unseemliness to be strict with them and to take revenge.

They These wicked people are the generation of the Flood, who rebelled because of אור, because of the rain; because it would ascend from the earth, they needed nothing.

Eliphaz’s solution to God’s apparent indifference and inaction was that it if He were seen to react it would preclude the existence of free-will. Job now counters that since these raiders and bandits live in hide-outs, in the wild and hidden from sight, they could be dealt with there by Providence, if it really exists, without anyone knowing about it and without it having any effect on free-will. Similarly, evil-doers fear the light of day, for it reveals their evil. They operate in the dark and at night so as to escape detection. Their demise under similar circumstance would also go undetected. Yet God still does not react.

Should one rise in daylight If they would rise by day, they would slay the wayfarers.

and at night he would be like a thief to dig under houses.

And the eye of the adulterer And the adulterer among them would wait until evening, saying...

a mask And he puts a mask on his face to commit a transgression, for the generation of the Flood was suspected of all these: of robbery, for it is stated (Gen. 6:11): “and the earth was filled with violence,” and of immorality, for it is stated (ibid. verse 12): “for all flesh had corrupted [its way on the earth].”

by day, they lock themselves in Those who are weaker than they, too weak to commit robbery by day, would dig under houses at night; by day they were sealed and closed up in their houses.

they know no light They did not recognize the light because it was not [shining at] the time of their prowling.

For together morning is to them [as] the shadow of death For by day they were locked in, and at night they would go to their tunnel, and they were not at all afraid of the demons.

for he recognizes the terrors of the shadow of death Everyone could recognize the terrifying demons, and he did not fear them. Our Sages, however, explained: By day, they would seal for themselves—By day they would chart the location of the cellar of the house and a rich man’s treasurehouse, for they would deposit balsamum oil with wealthy householders, knowing that he (sic) would put it in his (sic) treasurehouse, and at night they would smell and go there and dig into there.

He is light upon the face of the water When the righteous men, Noah and Methuselah, would rebuke them, they would say, “we are light [enough] to swim on the water, and we have papyrus and light materials from which to make boats and to float.”

Pirates, who spend their summers at sea pillaging and plundering and their winters in their hideaways debauching and philandering, could also be dealt with by Providence, away from any seeing eye.

their portion in the earth is cursed; he does not turn by the way of the vineyards They would curse their portion in the earth, saying that they would not turn by the way of the good, in the way of the righteous, who are lofty and dwell in the height or the world. Vineyards represent the righteous men and the leaders of the generation, as in (Hosea 2:17), “And I will give her vineyards from there,” which Jonathan renders: her leaders. They would curse their portion in the earth, saying that they would not turn in the way of the good; they would swear that they would not turn their way. Another explanation: תקלל חלקתם בארץ Their portion in the earth was spoiled, for they would destroy their seed in vain, as in (Gen. 6:12), “for all flesh had corrupted its way.” תקלל is an expression of spoiling (קלקול), as in (I Sam. 3:13), “for the iniquity [of the matter] that he knew that his sons were bringing disgrace (מקללים) upon them.” Another explanation: Their portion shall be cursed—the following generations will curse by them: He who requited the generation of the Flood. So I heard. (Gen. Rabbah 30:2). Another explanation: their portion is cursed; he does not turn by the way of the vineyards They would not accept reproof from the good men. Another explanation: They were swift to sail in ships to kill and to plunder property, but in the way of the land that was inhabited by humans and planted with vineyards they did not care to go.

Dryness and heat they steal away Because of their evil, they caused for themselves that the world should change for one year from its six seasons: sowing, reaping, heat, cold, summer, and winter.

snow water Like: and snow water. This too they stole from the world, because they sinned so that they descended to the grave. In some words, the “vavin” are missing, like (Jer. 11:19), “And I was like a lamb, a bull,” which is interpreted as, a lamb and a bull. There are many more in Machbereth Menachem ben Saruk (p. 26).

The womb forgets him [i.e., the womb of] his mother. Rabbi Tanchum expounded that the generation of the Flood would take their children and place them underneath themselves in order to stop up the windows of the deep, and even his mother would have no mercy on him.

he is sweet to the worms to die, and for the worms to eat their (sic) flesh.

he will no longer be remembered In one year they were [to be] uprooted, but Job was complaining about the reprieve that was given them [the wicked] from the start, for many died and did not see this retribution.

He feeds the barren woman who will not bear so was their custom: One would marry two wives, one for coitus and one for children. The one intended for coitus he would give a potion of roots to drink in order that she should never give birth, and he would feed her delicacies, bathe her, and adorn her, so that she should appear beautiful. The one intended for children he would dress in widow’s garments and starve. This is the meaning of his statement that the barren woman who will not give birth he would feed and adorn, but the “widow,” who was intended for children, he would not adorn.

And He draws The Holy One, blessed be He, [draws] those mighty men with His strength to retribution and to sustenance by the reprieve that He granted them.

he rises one day.

and does not believe in his life Heb. בחיין, like בחיים ; (Gen. 7:11): “on that day all the fountains of the deep were torn apart etc.”

He grants him safety until the day of their catastrophe and they rely [on it].

They are taken away in a second They are taken away from the world in a fleeting second.

and they are crushed crushed and impoverished.

like all they are gathered in Like all things that are gathered in and taken away at the time of the harvest, vintage, and olive harvest; just as those are gathered in, so were they destroyed instantly.

And if it is not so, then [If it is not] as I said, let one of you come and prove me a liar.

and make my words as nought [That is, my words] with which I criticize Him to know His standards, that He is slow to anger with the wicked, but He chastises those who love Him as I do, and He does not put them to death, as he complains above (23:17): “Because I was not cut off from before the darkness,” but those who remove the landmarks and commit all these [crimes] were not smitten with suffering.