Job 24:10
in Job 24Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
So that they go about naked without clothing, And being hungry they carry the sheaves.
KJV
They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry;
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This verse in Job 24
Commentary
12 notes on this verseThey cause him to go naked - These cruel, hard-hearted oppressors seize the cloth made for the family wear, or the wool and flax out of which such clothes should be made. And they take away the sheaf - Seize the grain as soon as it is reaped, that they may pay themselves the exorbitant rent at which they have leased out their land: and thus the sheaf - the thraves and ricks, by which they should have been supported, are taken away from the hungry.
This site's exposition
The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast
on Job 24:9-12
The wrongs press further: "The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast". The line "yet God charges no one with wrongdoing" restates the problem of verse 1 in its starkest form. Barnes notes that this line is the hinge of the list, the evidence gathered to press that question.
This site's exposition
They carry the sheaves, but still go hungry
Barnes sets the hungry who carry the sheaves beside the ox of Deuteronomy 25:4, left unmuzzled while it trod the grain. The poor get less than the ox. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see the naked here as stripped of clothing taken in pledge.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"They have wrongfully caused others to sleep without clothing." By wrongfully stripping others, who owed them nothing, they have caused them to love rest. "They have taken away the morsel of the hungry." They have reduced them to extreme poverty and starvation.
The Medieval Church2 voices
From the naked, and those going without clothing and a hungered, they have taken away the ears of corn. What he calls naked he repeats in the words without clothing, but it is one thing to be naked and another thing to go naked. Thus every person that does neither what is good nor what is bad is naked and idle; but he that does what is evil 'goes naked,' in that without the covering of good practice he is going by the road of wickedness.
This would be tolerable somehow if they wanted to take away things from people who at least had enough. Thus he continues increasing their evils saying, "From the naked," those not having any clothes, "from those going about without any clothes," who from extreme need …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
That secret sinners often pass undiscovered, ver. 13-18. That God punishes such by secret judgments, and reserves them for future judgment, ver. 19-25.
quarantine:anchor (2026-07-29) — cites-ver-19-anchored-1-12
They are very oppressive to the labourers they employ in their service. They not only give them no wages, though the labourer is worthy of his hire (and this is a crying sin, Jam. v. 4 ), but they will not so much as give them meat and drink: Those that carry their sheaves are hungry; so some read it (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
They cause him to go naked without clothing,....
Cruelty to the poor is great wickedness and cries aloud for vengeance. Those who show no mercy to such as lie at their mercy shall themselves have judgment without mercy.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
In Job 24:7 a like sin is alluded to: but there he implies open robbery of garments in the desert; here, the more refined robbery in civilized life, under the name of a "pledge." Having stripped the poor, they make them besides labor in their harvest-fields and do not allow them to satisfy their hunger with any of the very corn which they carry to the heap.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
And they take away the sheaf from the hungry - The meaning of this is, that the hungry are compelled to bear the sheaf for the rich without being allowed to satisfy their hunger from it. Moses commanded that even the ox should not be muzzled that trod out the grain Deu 25:4; but here was more aggravated cruelty than that would be, in compelling men to bear the sheaf of the harvest without allowing them even to satisfy their hunger. This is an instance of the cruelty which Job says was actually practiced on the earth, and yet God did not interpose to punish it.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
Between their rows they make oil The owners of the olive trees make oil.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| עָר֣וֹם | arom | naked | H6174 → | 16 times |
| הִ֭לְּכוּ | hilekhu | they go about | H1980 → | 1546 times |
| בְּלִ֣י | beli | not | H1097 → | 58 times |
| לְב֑וּשׁ | levush | clothing | H3830 → | 33 times |
| וּ֝רְעֵבִ֗ים | ureevim | and hungry | H7457 → | 20 times |
| נָ֣שְׂאוּ | naseu | they carry | H5375 → | 656 times |
| עֹֽמֶר׃ | ʾomer | a sheaf | H6016 → |
עָר֣וֹםnaked
aromH6174 →16 times
הִ֭לְּכוּthey go about
hilekhuH1980 →1546 times
בְּלִ֣יnot
beliH1097 →58 times
לְב֑וּשׁclothing
levushH3830 →33 times
וּ֝רְעֵבִ֗יםand hungry
ureevimH7457 →20 times
נָ֣שְׂאוּthey carry
naseuH5375 →656 times
עֹֽמֶר׃a sheaf
ʾomerH6016 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Deuteronomy 24:19If you are harvesting in your field and forget a sheaf there, do not go back to get it. It is to be left for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that…
it leads to
- Leviticus 23:22
When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap all the way to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the…
- Proverbs 19:17
Kindness to the poor is a loan to the LORD, and He will repay the lender.
- Deuteronomy 14:29
Then the Levite (because he has no portion or inheritance among you), the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow within your gates may come and eat and be satisfied. And the LORD your God…
- Leviticus 19:9–10
When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.
- Luke 14:13–14
But when you host a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind,
- Leviticus 23:22
About Job
This page draws on 11 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVI; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Olympiodorus of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON JOB 24:9-12 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.