Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 24:2
[Some] remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed [thereof].
2. Some remove ] Or, there are who remove. In the absence of hedgerows or walls, the landmark defined the boundary of a man’s field or estate. Its removal was equivalent to violent appropriation of the property of another; see Deu 19:14; Hos 5:10.
and feed thereof ] Rather, and feed them. They are open and defiant in their violent wrong, they seize a flock and publicly graze it as their own.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
2 4. Job now proceeds to illustrate his complaint of the absence of righteousness in God’s rule of the world. The instances are in the first place general.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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 mans 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 neighbors 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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 2. Some 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 neighbours’ ground, that, by contracting their boundaries, they might enlarge their own. The law of Moses denounces curses on those who remove their neighbours’ landmarks. See De 19:14; De 27:17, and the note on the former place, where the subject is considered at large.
They violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.] Mr. Good translates yiru, they destroy, deriving the word, not from raah, to feed, but from ra, to rend, to destroy.
The Septuagint had read roch, a shepherd; and therefore have translated , “violently carrying off both the flock and the shepherd.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Some remove the landmarks; or, they (i.e. the wicked, of whom he here treats) touch (to wit, in an unlawful manner, and with evil design, as this word is oft used, as Gen 26:11,29; Rth 2:9, so as to invade, or possess, or remove)
the landmarks, by which mens lands are discerned, and their properties secured; that so they may enlarge their own border by diminishing their neighbour; which is so horrid an act of injustice, that it hath not only been severely forbidden by God, Deu 19:14; 27:17; Pro 22:28; 23:10, but also declared execrable by the heathens, among whom it was permitted to any man to kill him that did it.
Feed thereof; or, feed them. They do not hide or kill them, but openly feed them, either in their oppressed neighbours ground, which, by taking away the landmarks, they have made their own, or in their own pastures, without any remorse, or shame, or fear of punishment, either from God or men.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2-24. Instances of the wickeddoing the worst deeds with seeming impunity (Job24:2-24).
Somethe wicked.
landmarksboundariesbetween different pastures (Deu 19:14;Pro 22:28).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[Some] remove the landmarks,…. Anciently set to distinguish one man’s land from another, to secure property, and preserve from encroachments; but some were so wicked as either secretly in the night to remove them, or openly to do it, having power on their side, pretending they were wrongly located; this was not only prohibited by the law of God, and pronounced an accursed thing, De 19:14; but was reckoned so before the law was given, being known to be such by the light of nature, as what was now, and here condemned, was before that law was in being; and so we find that this was accounted an execrable thing among the Heathens, who had a deity they called Jupiter Terminalis, who was appointed over bounds and landmarks; so Numa Pompilius appointed stones to be set as bounds to everyone’s lands, and dedicated them to Jupiter Terminalis, and ordered that those that removed them should be slain as sacrilegious persons, and they and their oxen devoted to destruction f: some render it, “they touch the landmarks” g, as if to touch them was unlawful, and therefore much more to remove them:
they violently take away flocks, and feed [thereof]; not content with a sheep or a lamb, they took away whole flocks, and that by force and violence, openly and publicly, and slew them, and fed on them; or else took them and put them into their own grounds, or such as they had got by encroachments from others, where they fed them without any fear of men; which shows the effrontery and impudence of them.
f Dion. Halicarnass. Festus apud Sanctium in loc. Vid. Rycquium de Capitol. Roman. c. 14. Ovid. Fasti, l. 2. g “attigerunt”, Pagninus, Bolducius “attingunt”, Vatablus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(2) Some remove the landmarks.Now follows a description of the wrong-doings of various classes of men. The removal of landmarks was expressly provided against by the Mosaic Law (Deu. 19:14; Deu. 27:17).
And feed thereof.Rather, probably, feed them: i.e., pasture them, the more easy to do when the landmarks are so removed.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. Some remove the landmarks The violence of Job’s emotion is marked by his omission of the subject the wicked. In times when landmarks were the sole evidence of the limits of land, their removal was deemed an outrage so gross that under Numa it was punished with death. See also Deu 19:14; Deu 27:17. On a land boundary stone of the time of Merodach-Baladan I., about B.C. 1300, is the following inscription: “If a ruler, or eunuch, or a citizen, the memorial stone of this ground takes and destroys, in a place where it cannot be seen to anywhere shall place it in, and this stone tablet if a naka, or a brother, or a katu, or an evil one, or an enemy, or any other person, or the son of the owner of this land, shall act falsely, and shall destroy it, into the water or into the fire shall throw it, with a stone shall break it, from the hand of Maraduk-zakirizkur, (the grantee,) and his seed shall take it away, and above or below shall send it; the gods, Ann, Bel, and Hea, Ninip and Gula, these lords and all the gods on this stone tablet whose emblems are seen, violently may they destroy his name. A curse unmitigated may they curse over him. Calamity may they bring upon him. May his seed be swept away in evil, and not in good; and in the day of departing of life may he expire, and Shamas and Merodach tear him asunder, and may none mourn for him!” GEORGE SMITH, Assyrian Discov., 24:236-241.
And feed thereof The same strong arm of violence that seized upon the flocks of the helpless, shamelessly feeds them in public view. It is supposed by some that Job, in this sad description of the poor and defenceless, (2-8,) had in mind the aboriginal people of his native land, the Horites, dwellers of Mount Seir, who had been dispossessed of their all, reduced to the grossest vassalage, and finally exterminated by the Edomites. Every land has had a like history of outrage and wrong.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 24:2. And feed thereof And him that feedeth them. So Heath, after the LXX.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
(2) Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof. (3) They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. (4) They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together. (5) 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. (6) They reap everyone his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked. (7) They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold. (8) They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter. (9) They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor. (10) They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry;
Job here instanceth, in a variety of most oppressive cases, the prosperity of bad men, against whom no judgment is immediately executed: and from thence Job leaves his friends to make their conclusions. He beautifully represents the tyranny and injustice of proud and oppressive men; of infamous robbers of their property, in removing the ancient land marks; of perverters of right paths, in turning the needy out of his way; of violently seizing the flocks of the poor; of depriving the laborer of his hire; and, in short, in doing all manner of injustice; and yet, because judgment is not executed speedily upon the wicked, who would infer, that either times, or things, or persons, are hidden from the Almighty?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 24:2 [Some] remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed [thereof].
Ver. 2. Some remove the landmarks ] Here he instanceth in all sorts of wicked persons, with their seculi laetitia, impunita nequitia; they go pointblank against God’s commandments; they please not him, and are contrary to all men; and yet who but they, so long as it will last? Some remove (or touch) the landmarks, which the very heathens held to be sacred, and not once to be touched. Numa, king of the Romans, made a law, that if any hid or removed a landmark he should be slain, by the next that met him, as a sacriligious person, or public pest, Inter ethnicos Terminus numinis loco habitus est. God’s law curseth such an offender, Deu 27:15-26 , and the civil laws pass sentence of death upon him. The Chaldee paraphrast and old Rabbis understand this and the following offences, of the old world, full of rapacity and impiety. But are there not the like and worse evils found also among us, upon whom the ends of the world are come, in these last and worst times, as Bernard fitly yoketh them? In his ultimis et pessimis temporibus. Read the catalogue and compare. Reckon, also, that you then read or hear this chapter aright, when, applying each passage to yourselves, you learn to wash your hands in innocence, or at least in tears for these abominations; as also, if ye be not offended at the prosperity of those who fall into all or but some of these wickednesses, since the time is at hand when account must be given of all things done in the body, whether good or evil.
They violently take away flocks, and feed thereof
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Some: i.e. the lawless men, whose various crimes are detailed in the following verses.
landmarks. Compare Deu 19:14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Job 24:2-12
Job 24:2-12
A LIST OF EVIL DEEDS COMMITTED BY THE WICKED AGAINST OTHERS
“There are that remove the landmarks;
They violently take away flocks, and feed them.
They drive away the ass of the fatherless;
They take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
They turn the needy out of the way;
The poor of the earth all hide themselves.
Behold, as wild asses in the desert
They go forth to their work, seeking food;
The wilderness yieldeth them bread for their children.
They cut their provender in the field;
And they glean the vintage of the wicked.
They lie all night naked without clothing,
And have no covering in the cold.
They are wet with the showers of the mountains,
And embrace the rock for want of a shelter.
There are that pluck the fatherless from the breast,
And take a pledge of the poor.
So that they go about naked without clothing,
And being hungry they carry the sheaves.
They make oil within the walls of these men;
They tread their winepresses and suffer thirst.
From out of the populous city, men groan,
And the soul of the wounded crieth out:
Yet God regardeth not the folly.”
The picture that emerges here is that of the heartless oppressors of the poor. These wicked men steal land by moving landmarks (Job 24:2), they steal whole flocks of animals and keep them (Job 24:3), they steal an orphan’s ass, exact an unjust pledge from widows (Job 24:4) and force their poor laborers who work for them to scavenge for food in the mountains, where they have no residences, and are not sufficiently clothed, and where they are often cold and hungry (Job 24:5-7).
“The soul of the wounded crieth out, yet God regardeth not the folly” (Job 24:12).They violate the spirit of the Law of God (Deu 25:4) by denying those who tread their winepresses even a taste of the juice, and by forbidding them to eat of the grain as they carry the sheaves of the wicked (Job 24:10-11). Yet all of this wickedness does not result in any direct interference of God in the affairs of such evil men.
Job’s argument throughout these verses is simply that the wicked are not judged and punished for such evil immediately, but that they get away with it, at least in many instances.
Driver and others have complained that much of the text here is obscure, damaged, uncertain, corrupt, etc. In spite of such objections, it is clear enough what Job was telling us in this review of what the wealthy wicked were doing to the poor.
E.M. Zerr:
Job 24:2-10. This entire paragraph is a description of the ways of wicked men. The argument of Job is that if such wicked men can be thus happy and prosperous, the misfortunes of another do not prove him to be wicked as the friends have been arguing.
Job 24:11. The wicked are able to quench their thirst by the wine of their own production, thus enjoying the fruit of their own labors.
Job 24:12. These wicked men may impose on others until they groan, yet God does not stop them with any punishment in the way of afflictions.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
landmarks: Deu 19:14, Deu 27:17, Pro 22:28, Pro 23:10, Hos 5:10
violently: Job 1:15, Job 1:17, Job 5:5
feed thereof: or, feed them
Reciprocal: Lev 6:4 – which he Job 20:19 – Because Pro 1:13 – General Isa 3:14 – ye have eaten Isa 32:6 – empty Eze 45:9 – exactions Mic 2:2 – so
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 24:2. Some, &c. In proof that wicked persons prosper, he instances in two sorts of unrighteous people, whom all the world saw thriving in their iniquity: 1st, Tyrants, and those that did wrong under pretence of law and authority; and, 2d, Robbers and plunderers, that did wrong by downright force, as the bands of the Sabeans and Chaldeans, who had lately plundered him. Remove the landmark By which mens lands are distinguished, and their properties secured, that so they may enlarge their own border by diminishing the estate of their neighbour which is so great an act of injustice that it was not only very strictly forbidden by God in his law, but also declared execrable by the heathen, among some of whom it was permitted to any man to kill him that did it. Forging or destroying deeds is now a crime equivalent to this. They violently take away flocks, and feed thereof They take away cattle by force, and use them as if they were their own. Or, they feed them; they do not hide, or kill them, but openly feed them in their pastures, without any remorse, or shame, or fear of punishment, either from God or man.