Job 24:11

11 They crush olives among the terraces[a] ; they tread the winepresses, yet suffer thirst.

Job 24:11 in Other Translations

King James Version (KJV)
11 Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.
English Standard Version (ESV)
11 among the olive rows of the wicked they make oil; they tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.
New Living Translation (NLT)
11 They press out olive oil without being allowed to taste it, and they tread in the winepress as they suffer from thirst.
The Message Bible (MSG)
11 No matter how back-breaking their labor, they can never make ends meet.
American Standard Version (ASV)
11 They make oil within the walls of these men; They tread [their] winepresses, and suffer thirst.
GOD'S WORD Translation (GW)
11 They press out olive oil between rows [of olive trees]. They stomp on grapes in wine vats, yet they are thirsty.
Holman Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
11 They crush olives in their presses; they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.
New International Reader's Version (NIRV)
11 They work very hard as they crush olives. They stomp on grapes in winepresses, but they are still thirsty.

Job 24:11 Meaning and Commentary

Job 24:11

[Which] make oil within their walls
Not the poor within their own walls; as if the sense was, that they made their oil in a private manner within the walls of their houses, or in their cellars, lest it should be known and taken away from them; for such cannot be thought to have had oliveyards to make oil of; rather within the walls of their rich masters, where they were kept closely confined to their work, as if in a prison; or within the walls and fences of their oliveyards, where their olive presses stood; or best of all "within the rows F17 [of] their [olive trees]", as the word signifies, where having gathered the olives, they pressed out the oil in the presses and this they did at noon, in the heat of the day, as the word F18 for making oil is observed by some to signify, and yet had nothing given them to quench their thirst, as follows:

[and] tread [their] winepresses, and suffer thirst;
after having gathered their grapes from their vines for them, they trod them in the winepresses, and made their wine, and yet would not allow them to drink of it to allay their thirst.


FOOTNOTES:

F17 (Mtrwv Nyb) "inter ordines", Mercerus, Piscator, Cocceius; so Sephorno, and some in Eliae Tishbi, p. 241.
F18 (wryhuy) "meridiati sunt", V. L. so Bolducius, Schultens.

Job 24:11 In-Context

9 The fatherless child is snatched from the breast; the infant of the poor is seized for a debt.
10 Lacking clothes, they go about naked; they carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.
11 They crush olives among the terraces ; they tread the winepresses, yet suffer thirst.
12 The groans of the dying rise from the city, and the souls of the wounded cry out for help. But God charges no one with wrongdoing.
13 “There are those who rebel against the light, who do not know its ways or stay in its paths.

Cross References 2

  • 1. Isaiah 5:2; Isaiah 16:10; Haggai 2:16
  • 2. Micah 6:15

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
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