Job 24:2
in Job 24Men move boundary stones; they pasture stolen flocks.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
There are that remove the landmarks; They violently take away flocks, and feed them.
KJV
Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.
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This verse in Job 24
Commentary
8 notes on this verseSome remove the landmarks - Stones or posts were originally set up to ascertain the bounds of particular estates: and this was necessary in open countries, before hedges and fences were formed. Wicked and covetous men often removed the landmarks or termini, and set them in on their neighbors’ ground, that, by contracting their boundaries, they might enlarge their own. The law of Moses denounces curses on those who remove their neighbors’ landmarks. See Deu 19:14; Deu 27:17, and the note on the former place, where the subject is considered at large.
This site's exposition
Men move boundary stones
on Job 24:2-4
"Men move boundary stones", they "pasture stolen flocks", they "drive away the donkey of the fatherless", and they "take the widow’s ox in pledge". Gill notes that the fatherless and the widow were the weakest members of a household economy, the people law and custom were meant to shield.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church2 voices
Since he had said that the course of temporal things was not unknown to God, he consequently shows in what way he judges temporal things, making first a list of the various faults of men, some of whom fraudulently inflict harmful things on others. So …
Others remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed them. ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION Whom does he denote by the title of 'others,' saving Heretics, who to the bosom of Holy Church are strangers? For they the same persons remove landmarks, in that the constitutions of the Fathers they by walking awry do overstep. Concerning which same constitutions it is written, Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Forging or destroying deeds is now a crime equivalent to this. They dispossess them of their personal estates, under colour of justice. They violently take away flocks, pretending they are forfeited, and feed thereof; as the rich man took the poor man's ewe lamb, 2 Sam. xii.
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
Some remove the landmarks,....
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Some remove the land-marks - Landmarks are pillars or stones set up to mark the boundaries of a farm. To remove them, by carrying them on to the land of another, was an act of dishonesty and robbery - since it was only by marks that the extent of a man’s property could be known. Fences were uncommon; the art of surveying was not well understood, and deeds describing land were probably unknown also, and their whole dependence, therefore, was on the stones that were erected to mark the boundaries of a lot or farm. As it was not difficult to remove them, it became a matter of special importance to guard against it, and to make it a crime of magnitude. Accordingly, it was forbidden in the strictest manner in the law of Moses. “Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor’s land-mark;” Deu 27:17; compare Deu 19:14; Pro 22:28; Pro 23:10. And feed thereof - Margin, “or, them.” The margin is correct. The meaning is, that they drive off the flocks of others, and “pasture” them; that is, they are at no pains to conceal what they do, but mingle them with their own herds, and feed them as if they were their own. If they drove them away to kill, and removed them wholly from view, it would be less shameful than to keep and claim them as their own, and to make the robbery so public.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
Why were the times not hidden from the Almighty? This is a plaint. Why were the times of man’s days not hidden from the Holy One, blessed be He, that He should not know the day of man’s death?
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
5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| גְּבֻל֥וֹת | gevulot | boundaries | H1367 → | |
| יַשִּׂ֑יגוּ | yasigu | people reach | H5381 → | 50 times |
| עֵ֥דֶר | ʾeder | flock[s] | H5739 → | |
| גָּ֝זְל֗וּ | gazelu | they seize | H1497 → | 30 times |
| וַיִּרְעֽוּ׃ | vaiyiru | and they have pastured [them] | H7462 → | 177 times |
גְּבֻל֥וֹתboundaries
gevulotH1367 →
יַשִּׂ֑יגוּpeople reach
yasiguH5381 →50 times
עֵ֥דֶרflock[s]
ʾederH5739 →
גָּ֝זְל֗וּthey seize
gazeluH1497 →30 times
וַיִּרְעֽוּ׃and they have pastured [them]
vaiyiruH7462 →177 times
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
Proverbs 22:28Do not move an ancient boundary stone which your fathers have placed.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 27:17
‘Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary stone.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
Reached by 4 separate paths from here.
- Deuteronomy 19:14
You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, which was set up by your ancestors to mark the inheritance you shall receive in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to…
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Proverbs 23:10
Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Deuteronomy 27:17
Through
Proverbs 23:10Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
it leads to
- Proverbs 22:28
Do not move an ancient boundary stone which your fathers have placed.
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Zechariah 7:10
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’
- Jeremiah 22:3
This is what the LORD says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.…
- James 1:27
Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
- Proverbs 22:28
Through
Deuteronomy 19:14You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, which was set up by your ancestors to mark the inheritance you shall receive in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to…
it leads to
- Hosea 5:10
The princes of Judah are like those who move boundary stones; I will pour out My fury upon them like water.
- Hosea 5:10
About Job
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; 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; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.