Job 24:5
in Job 24Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go to work foraging for food; the wasteland is food for their children.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Behold, as wild asses in the desert They go forth to their work, seeking diligently for food; The wilderness yieldeth them bread for their children.
KJV
Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children.
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This verse in Job 24
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Behold, as wild asses in the desert - In regard to the wild ass, see the notes at Job 6:5. Schultens, Good, Noyes, and Wemyss, understand this, not as referring to the haughty tyrants themselves, but to the oppressed and needy wretches whom they had driven from society, and compelled to seek a precarious subsistence, like the wild ass, in the desert. They suppose that the meaning is, that these outcasts go to their daily toil seeking roots and vegetables in the desert for a subsistence, like wild animals.
This site's exposition
like wild donkeys in the desert
on Job 24:5-8
The poor now appear "like wild donkeys in the desert", who "go to work foraging for food" while "the wasteland is food for their children". They "glean the vineyards of the wicked". Watson notes that the poor do the labor that feeds their oppressors and own none of the harvest.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"And they have departed," he says, "like asses in the field," that is, they have scorned everybody and have mocked everyone. However, nobody commits any injustice against them and does not ill-treat them.
The Medieval Church2 voices
Others as wild asses in the desert go forth to their work. Watching for a prey, they provide bread for their children. For the 'onager' is a wild ass; and in this place Heretics are rightly likened to 'wild asses,' in that being let loose in their pleasures, they are strange to the fetters of faith and reason. Hence it is written; A wild ass used to the wilderness that snuffeth up the wind of his love at his pleasure.
However, there are some who do not harm others fraudulently like those already described, but through open violence. These men rush to do evil like people who are not restrained by the discipline of the law. He says about these men, "Others like the wild …
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.
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Behold, as wild asses in the desert,....
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
But no desert can set men out of the reach of God's eye and hand. Their trade is to steal, and to make a prey of all about them. They have chosen it as their trade; it is their work, because there is more to be got by it, and it is got more easily, than by an honest calling.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
So Ishmael is called a "wild ass-man"; These Bedouin robbers, with the unbridled wildness of the ass of the desert, go forth thither. Robbery is their lawless "work." The desert, which yields no food to other men, yields food for the robber and his children by the plunder of caravans. rising betimes--In the East travelling is begun very early, before the heat comes on.
Rising betimes for a prey - The general sense here seems plain enough. There are some who live a lawless roaming life: make a predatory life their employment; for this purpose, frequent the wilderness, where they seize on and appropriate whatsoever they find, and by this method they and their families are supported. Mr. Good says: “The sense has never yet been understood by any commentator;” and hence he proposes a different division of the words, placing ערבה arabah, the desert or wilderness, in the first hemistich, thus: - “Rising early for the pillage of the wilderness; The bread of themselves and of their children.” Others think that the words are spoken solely of the poor under the hand of oppression, who are driven away from their homes, and obliged to seek such support as the wilderness can afford. Such was originally the state of the Bedouins, and of the wandering Arab hordes in general: the oppression of the tyrannous governors obliged them to seek refuge in the deserts, where they still live in a roaming predatory life.
The words behind it
11 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הֵ֤ן | hen | there! | H2005 → | 316 times |
| פְּרָאִ֨ים׀ | peraim | wild donkeys | H6501 → | 10 times |
| בַּֽמִּדְבָּ֗ר | bamidbar | in the wilderness | H4057 → | 270 times |
| יָצְא֣וּ | yatzeu | they go forth | H3318 → | 1067 times |
| בְּ֭פָעֳלָם | befoolom | in work their | H6467 → | 37 times |
| מְשַׁחֲרֵ֣י | meshacharei | seeking | H7836 → | 12 times |
| לַטָּ֑רֶף | lataref | for <the> food | H2964 → | 22 times |
| עֲרָבָ֥ה | ʾaravah | a desert plain | H6160 → | |
| ל֥וֹ | lo | to it | ||
| לֶ֝֗חֶם | lechem | food | H3899 → | 298 times |
| לַנְּעָרִֽים׃ | lanearim | for the children | H5288 → | 239 times |
הֵ֤ןthere!
henH2005 →316 times
פְּרָאִ֨ים׀wild donkeys
peraimH6501 →10 times
בַּֽמִּדְבָּ֗רin the wilderness
bamidbarH4057 →270 times
יָצְא֣וּthey go forth
yatzeuH3318 →1067 times
בְּ֭פָעֳלָםin work their
befoolomH6467 →37 times
מְשַׁחֲרֵ֣יseeking
meshachareiH7836 →12 times
לַטָּ֑רֶףfor <the> food
latarefH2964 →22 times
עֲרָבָ֥הa desert plain
ʾaravahH6160 →
ל֥וֹto it
lo
לֶ֝֗חֶםfood
lechemH3899 →298 times
לַנְּעָרִֽים׃for the children
lanearimH5288 →239 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
Micah 2:1Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.
it leads to
- Psalms 36:4
Even on his bed he plots wickedness; he sets himself on a path that is not good; he fails to reject evil.
- Isaiah 32:7
The weapons of the scoundrel are destructive; he hatches plots to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just.
- Psalms 7:14–16
Behold, the wicked man travails with evil; he conceives trouble and births falsehood.
- Hosea 7:6–7
For they prepare their heart like an oven while they lie in wait; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
- Proverbs 6:12–19
A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth,
- Psalms 36:4
Through
John 18:28Then they led Jesus away from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. By now it was early morning, and the Jews did not enter the Praetorium, to avoid being defiled and unable to eat the Passover.
it leads to
- John 18:33
Pilate went back into the Praetorium, summoned Jesus, and asked Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”
- John 19:9
and he went back into the Praetorium. “Where are You from?” he asked. But Jesus gave no answer.
- John 18:33
Through
Psalms 104:23Man goes forth to his work and to his labor until evening.
it leads to
- Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
- Genesis 3:19
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, 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 Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 24:1-8; 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; R. A. Watson, The Book of Job, Expositor's Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.