Job 24:6

6 They reap in a field not their own and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

Job 24:6 Meaning and Commentary

Job 24:6

They reap [everyone] his corn in the field
Not the poor, who are obliged to reap the corn of the wicked for them without any wages, as some; but rather the wicked reap the corn of the poor; they are so insolent and impudent, that they do not take the corn out of their barns by stealth, but while it is standing in the field; they come openly and reap it down, as if it was their own, without any fear of God or men: it is observed, that the word F11 signifies a mixture of the poorer sorts of corn, which is scarce anything better than food for cattle; yet this they cut down and carry off, as forage for their horses and asses at least. Some of the ancient versions, taking it to be two words, render them, "which is not their own" F12; they go into a field that is not theirs, and reap corn that do not belong to them, that they have no right unto, and so are guilty of great injustice, and of doing injury to others:

and they gather the vintage of the wicked;
gather the grapes off of the vines of wicked men, which are gathered, as the word signifies, at the latter end of the year, in autumn; and though they belong to wicked men like themselves, yet they spare them not, but seize on all that come to hand, whether the property of good men or bad men; and thus sometimes one wicked man is an instrument of punishing another: or "the wicked gather the vintage" F13; that is, of the poor; as they reap where they have not sown, they gather of that they have not planted.


FOOTNOTES:

F11 (wlylb) "migma suum", Bolducius; "farraginem ejus [vel] suam", Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Michaelis.
F12 (ouk autwn) Sept. "non suum", V. L. so the Targum, and Aben Ezra, Grotius, Codurcus.
F13 (wvqly evr Mrkw) "et in vinea (aliena) vindemiant impii", Tigurine version; "vineasque vindemiant impii", Castalio.

Job 24:6 In-Context

4 They thrust the needy off the road; the poor of the earth all hide themselves.
5 Like wild asses in the desert they go out to their toil, scavenging in the wasteland food for their young.
6 They reap in a field not their own and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.
7 They lie all night naked, without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.
8 They are wet with the rain of the mountains, and cling to the rock for want of shelter.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.