They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.
The verse belongs with chapters 22 and 23 to Job's answer to his friends' constant accusations, falling inside chapters 8 to 27 where the friends cease troubling him, while chapters 25 through 27 carry his last reply forward. In its own chapter the rebels against the light are wicked oppressors who remove landmarks, violently take away flocks, drive away the donkey of the fatherless, take the widow's ox for a pledge, and turn the needy out of the way. Against their lives Job sets his own record of delivering the poor that cried and the fatherless and the helpless, causing the widow's heart to rejoice, and being eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and a father to the poor. By that contrast he makes a complete justification of himself and a vindication of his own righteousness.
The verse shows that people can have light before them yet rebel against it, and their failure to know its ways and remain in its paths comes from unwillingness to receive truth and conviction, not from a lack of light. A heart bent on sin shuts its eyes to duty, making the light seem absent.
The verse belongs with chapters 22 and 23 to Job's answer to his friends' constant accusations, falling inside chapters 8 to 27 where the friends cease troubling him, while chapters 25 through 27 carry his last reply forward. In its own chapter the rebels against the light are wicked oppressors who remove landmarks, violently take away flocks, drive away the donkey of the fatherless, take the widow's ox for a pledge, and turn the needy out of the way. Against their lives Job sets his own record of delivering the poor that cried and the fatherless and the helpless, causing the widow's heart to rejoice, and being eyes to the blind and feet to the lame and a father to the poor. By that contrast he makes a complete justification of himself and a vindication of his own righteousness.
The verse shows that people can have light before them yet rebel against it, and their failure to know its ways and remain in its paths comes from unwillingness to receive truth and conviction, not from a lack of light. A heart bent on sin shuts its eyes to duty, making the light seem absent.