Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 24:11
[Which] make oil within their walls, [and] tread [their] winepresses, and suffer thirst.
11. A similar contrast between “tread the winepresses” and “suffer thirst.” The expression “within their walls” refers to the walled, well-protected vineyards of the rich nobility, within which these miserable serfs tread out abundant wine all the while that they themselves pant with thirst.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Which made oil within their walls – Or rather, they compel them to express oil within their walls. The word yatshyru, rendered made oil, is from 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. The expression within their walls, means probably within the walls of the rich; that is, within the enclosures where such presses were erected. They were taken away from their homes; compelled to toil for others; and confined for this purpose within enclosures erected for the purpose of expressing oil. Some have proposed to read this passage, Between their walls they make them toil at noonday; as if it referred to the cruelty of causing them to labor in the sweltering heat of the sun. But the former interpretation is the most common, and best agrees with the usual meaning of the word, and with the connection.
And tread their wine-presses and suffer thirst – They compel them to tread out their grapes without allowing them to slake their thirst from the wine. Such a treatment would, of course, be cruel oppression. A similar description is given by Addison in his letter from Italy:
Il povreo Abitante mira indarno
Il roseggiante Arancio el pingue grano,
Crescer dolente ei mira ed oli, e vini,
E de mirti odorar l ombra ei sdegna.
In mezzo alla Bonta della Natura
Maledetto languisce, e deatro a cariche
Di vino vigne muore per la sete.
The poor inhabitant beholds in vain
The reddening orange and the swelling grain;
Joyless he sees the growing oils and wines
And in the myrtles fragrant shade repines;
Starves, in the midst of natures bounty curst,
And in the loaden vineyard dies for thirst.
Addisons works, vol. i. pp. 51-53. Ed. Lond. 1721.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 11. 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, labour in the fields on scanty fare, or tread their wine-presses, from the produce of which they are not permitted to quench their thirst.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
To wit, the poor man last mentioned.
Within their walls; either,
1. Within their own walls, i.e. in private and secret places, for fear of the oppressors. Or rather,
2. Within the walls of the rich oppressors, for their use and benefit; for the poor, alas! had no walls, nor houses, nor oliveyards, nor vineyards left to them, but they were violently spoiled of and driven away from all those things, as was said in the foregoing verses.
Their wine-presses, i.e. the grapes in their wine-presses, by a metonymy of the thing containing for the thing contained.
Suffer thirst; because they are not permitted to quench their thirst out of the wine which they make, though their labors both need and deserve refreshment.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. Which“They,”the poor, “press the oil within their wall”; namely, notonly in the open fields (Job24:10), but also in the wall-enclosed vineyards and olive gardensof the oppressor (Isa 5:5). Yetthey are not allowed to quench their “thirst” with thegrapes and olives. Here, thirsty; Job24:10, hungry.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[Which] make oil within their walls,…. Not the poor within their own walls; as if the sense was, that they made their oil in a private manner within the walls of their houses, or in their cellars, lest it should be known and taken away from them; for such cannot be thought to have had oliveyards to make oil of; rather within the walls of their rich masters, where they were kept closely confined to their work, as if in a prison; or within the walls and fences of their oliveyards, where their olive presses stood; or best of all “within the rows q [of] their [olive trees]”, as the word signifies, where having gathered the olives, they pressed out the oil in the presses and this they did at noon, in the heat of the day, as the word r for making oil is observed by some to signify, and yet had nothing given them to quench their thirst, as follows:
[and] tread [their] winepresses, and suffer thirst; after having gathered their grapes from their vines for them, they trod them in the winepresses, and made their wine, and yet would not allow them to drink of it to allay their thirst.
q “inter ordines”, Mercerus, Piscator, Cocceius; so Sephorno, and some in Eliae Tishbi, p. 241. r “meridiati sunt”, V. L. so Bolducius, Schultens.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
11. Within their walls Compare Pro 24:31.
Tread presses See note, Job 1:13. Wilkinson ( Domestic Life, etc., 24:63-65) says of the ancient Egyptians: “Their winepress was frequently in or near the vineyard; the grapes were trodden by the feet, but they were subjected to another process of twisting in a bag,” etc.
And suffer thirst Mr Addison, in one of his letters from Italy, presents a similar picture of its “poor inhabitant,” who:
Starves, in the midst of nature’s bounty curst,
And in the loaden vineyard dies for thirst.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
(11) Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst. (12) Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them. (13) They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof. (14) The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief. (15) The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face. (16) In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light. (17) For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death. (18) He is swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards. (19) Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned. (20) The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree. (21) He evil entreateth the barren that beareth not: and doeth not good to the widow. (22) He draweth also the mighty with his power: he riseth up, and no man is sure of life. (23) Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he resteth; yet his eyes are upon their ways. (24) They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.
Job follows up the same kind of reasoning, through all these verses: for though the terms made use of, and the similitudes by which the doctrine is illustrated, vary, yet the sum and substance is the same. The thief of the day, or the murderer of the night, are both alike in this respect: sometimes their prosperity is great, as though they had committed no evil: and sometimes their destruction cometh speedily. But from those events no conclusions can be drawn with such certainty as from outward things to infer the judgment of GOD. That it will be well with the righteous, and ill with the wicked, is the unerring doctrine of a divine government: but that men, from their scanty knowledge and observation, may be able in every instance to form just conclusions, who are righteous and who are wicked, is impossible. The wise man hath a beautiful observation on this same doctrine, and draws the same conclusion as Job doth. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times; and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear GOD. Ecc 8:12-13 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 24:11 [Which] make oil within their walls, [and] tread [their] winepresses, and suffer thirst.
Ver. 11. Which make oil within their walls, &c. ] See Trapp on “ Job 24:6 “ See Trapp on “ Job 24:10 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Deu 25:4, Jer 22:13, Jam 5:4
Reciprocal: Deu 24:14 – General Col 4:1 – give
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 24:11-12. Which make oil within their walls The walls of the rich oppressors, for their use and benefit. And tread their wine-presses That is, the grapes in their wine-presses; and suffer thirst Because they are not permitted to quench their thirst out of the wine which they make. Men groan Under the burden of injuries and grievous oppressions; from out of the city Not only in deserts, or less inhabited places, where these tyrants have the greater opportunity to practise their villanies; but even in cities, where there is a face of order, and government, and courts of justice, and a multitude of people to observe and restrain such actions; whereby they plainly declare that they neither fear God nor reverence man. The soul of the wounded crieth out The life or blood of those who are wounded to death (as the word , chalalim, properly signifies) crieth aloud to God for vengeance; yet God layeth not folly to them Does not appear to impute, or lay to their charge, this folly, or wickedness; does not punish them for it as it deserves.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
24:11 [Which] make oil {l} within their walls, [and] tread [their] winepresses, and suffer thirst.
(l) In such places which are appointed for that purpose; meaning, that those who labour for the wicked, are pined for hunger.