In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.
Job 24 belongs to the debate between Job and his three friends concerning his afflictions. Within chapters 22-24 it comes in the course of Job's last reply as he answers his friends' constant accusations, both stated and implied. Unable to find God to plead before Him face to face, Job pleads his cause before his friends throughout chapter 24.
The passage is Job's answer about the wicked, describing both their present prosperity and their future punishment. To make his case, he contrasts wicked oppressors who remove landmarks, violently take away flocks, drive away the ass of the fatherless, take the widow's ox for a pledge, and turn the needy out of the way, with his own life of upright dealing with others. That contrast is part of Job's complete justification of himself and vindication of his own self-righteousness, in which he maintains that even God would find no fault in him.
The verse itself describes evildoers who mark out houses in daylight and then dig through them under cover of darkness, avoiding the light because their deeds are evil. It keeps a marked distinction between day and night, with day as the light portion of the twenty-four hours and night as darkness, so the house-breaking belongs to night and not to day, since the men act in the dark and know not the light.
Job 24 belongs to the debate between Job and his three friends concerning his afflictions. Within chapters 22-24 it comes in the course of Job's last reply as he answers his friends' constant accusations, both stated and implied. Unable to find God to plead before Him face to face, Job pleads his cause before his friends throughout chapter 24.
The passage is Job's answer about the wicked, describing both their present prosperity and their future punishment. To make his case, he contrasts wicked oppressors who remove landmarks, violently take away flocks, drive away the ass of the fatherless, take the widow's ox for a pledge, and turn the needy out of the way, with his own life of upright dealing with others. That contrast is part of Job's complete justification of himself and vindication of his own self-righteousness, in which he maintains that even God would find no fault in him.
The verse itself describes evildoers who mark out houses in daylight and then dig through them under cover of darkness, avoiding the light because their deeds are evil. It keeps a marked distinction between day and night, with day as the light portion of the twenty-four hours and night as darkness, so the house-breaking belongs to night and not to day, since the men act in the dark and know not the light.