Job 24:13-17
New English Translation
13 There are those[a] who rebel against the light;
they do not know its ways
and they do not stay on its paths.
14 Before daybreak[b] the murderer rises up;
he kills the poor and the needy;
in the night he is[c] like a thief.[d]
15 And the eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight,
thinking,[e] ‘No eye can see me,’
and covers his face with a mask.
16 In the dark the robber[f] breaks into houses,[g]
but by day they shut themselves in;[h]
they do not know the light.[i]
17 For all of them,[j] the morning is to them like deep darkness;
they are friends with the terrors of darkness.
Footnotes
- Job 24:13 tn Heb “They are among those who.”
- Job 24:14 tn The text simply has לָאוֹר (laʾor, “at light” or “at daylight”), probably meaning just at the time of dawn.
- Job 24:14 tn In a few cases the jussive is used without any real sense of the jussive being present (see GKC 323 §109.k).
- Job 24:14 sn The point is that he is like a thief in that he works during the night, just before the daylight, when the advantage is all his and the victim is most vulnerable.
- Job 24:15 tn Heb “saying.”
- Job 24:16 tn The phrase “the robber” has been supplied in the English translation for clarification.
- Job 24:16 tc This is not the idea of the adulterer, but of the thief. So some commentators reverse the order and put this verse after v. 14.
- Job 24:16 tc The verb חִתְּמוּ (khittemu) is the Piel from the verb חָתַם (khatam, “to seal”). The verb is now in the plural, covering all the groups mentioned that work under the cover of darkness. The suggestion that they “seal,” i.e., “mark” the house they will rob, goes against the meaning of the word “seal.”
- Job 24:16 tc Some commentators join this very short colon to the beginning of v. 17: “they do not know the light. For together…” becomes “for together they have not known the light.”
- Job 24:17 tn Heb “together.”
Job 24:13-17
Christian Standard Bible
13 The wicked are those who rebel against the light.
They do not recognize its ways
or stay on its paths.
14 The murderer rises at dawn
to kill the poor and needy,
and by night he becomes a thief.
15 The adulterer’s eye watches for twilight,
thinking, “No eye will see me,”
and he covers his face.
16 In the dark they break[a] into houses;
by day they lock themselves in,[b]
never experiencing the light.
17 For the morning is like darkness to them.
Surely they are familiar with the terrors of darkness!
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