Job 24:11
in Job 24They crush olives within their walls; they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
They make oil within the walls of these men; They tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.
KJV
Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.
⋯
This verse in Job 24
Commentary
11 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Which made oil within their walls - Or rather, they compel them to express oil within their walls. The word יצהירו yatshı̂yrû, rendered “made oil,” is from צחר tsachar, to shine, to give light; and hence, the derivatives of the word are used to denote light, and then oil, and thence the word comes to denote to press out oil for the purpose of light. Oil was obtained for this purpose from olives by pressing them, and the idea here is, that the poor were compelled to engage in this service for others without compensation.
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 tread the winepresses, but go thirsty
The poor who carry the sheaves in verse 10 also crush the olives and tread the grapes of the wicked. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown place the work within the walls of the oppressor's vineyards. Henry calls this worse than muzzling the ox.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"They have unjustly laid ambush in narrow places." They have laid ambush in hidden places; in fact, in larger places and roads they wait in ambush for those who have no chance to escape. "And they," that is, all the impious persons, "have not known …
The Medieval Church2 voices
If, perhaps, they seem to have a surplus in anything, they take that away not thinking what deep poverty they suffer in other things, and so he says, "Among these accumulations," of fruits, "they have taken a siesta," for they have rested at noon as …
They rest at mid-day amid the heaps of those that thirst with the winepresses being trodden. All those that persecute Holy Church, what else do they but 'tread the winepress?' Which is allowed to be by the Divine appointment, that the clusters of souls may flow out into spiritual wine, and being divested of the corruptible flesh run into the heavenly realms as into a receptacle. For whilst the unrighteous bear down the righteous, they as it were put clusters of the grape beneath their feet.
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
, that those who make oil within their walls, and with a great deal of toil labour at the wine-presses, yet suffer thirst, which was worse than muzzling the mouth of the ox that treads out the corn.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Which make oil within their walls,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Which--"They," the poor, "press the oil within their wall"; namely, not only in the open fields (Job 24:10), but also in the wall-enclosed vineyards and olive gardens of the oppressor (Isa 5:5). Yet they are not allowed to quench their "thirst" with the grapes and olives.
Make oil within their walls - Thus stripped of all that on which they depended for clothing and food, they are obliged to become vassals to their lord, labor in the fields on scanty fare, or tread their wine-presses, from the produce of which they are not permitted to quench their thirst.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
Between their rows they make oil The owners of the olive trees make oil.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
From the city people groan The people and the dignitaries of the city groan because of those robbers.
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
6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| בֵּין־ | bein- | between | H996 → | 407 times |
| שׁוּרֹתָ֥ם | shurotam | rows their | H7791 → | |
| יַצְהִ֑ירוּ | yatzhiru | they press out oil | H6671 → | |
| יְקָבִ֥ים | yekavim | wine-presses | H3342 → | |
| דָּ֝רְכ֗וּ | darekhu | they tread | H1869 → | 62 times |
| וַיִּצְמָֽאוּ׃ | vaiyitzmau | and they were thirsty | H6770 → |
בֵּין־between
bein-H996 →407 times
שׁוּרֹתָ֥םrows their
shurotamH7791 →
יַצְהִ֑ירוּthey press out oil
yatzhiruH6671 →
יְקָבִ֥יםwine-presses
yekavimH3342 →
דָּ֝רְכ֗וּthey tread
darekhuH1869 →62 times
וַיִּצְמָֽאוּ׃and they were thirsty
vaiyitzmauH6770 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 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
James 5:4Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
it leads to
- Leviticus 19:13
You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Deuteronomy 24:14–15
Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 22:13
“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages,
- Malachi 3:5
“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Romans 9:29
It is just as Isaiah foretold: “Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.”
- Leviticus 19:13
Through
Deuteronomy 25:4Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.
it leads to
- 1 Timothy 5:17–18
Elders who lead effectively are worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.
- 1 Corinthians 9:9–10
For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned?
- 1 Timothy 5:17–18
Through
Jeremiah 22:13“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages,
it leads to
- Micah 3:10
who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity.
- Micah 3:10
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; 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.