Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 24:6
They reap [every one] his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked.
6. The verse reads,
They reap their fodder in the field,
And glean the vineyard of the wicked.
The coarse food which they can possess themselves of is called by the poet “their fodder”; it is scarcely grain; and for fruit they have only the forgotten or neglected late gleanings of the vineyard of the wicked. The term “wicked” seems to mean here the rich, inhumane lords of the soil; comp. the converse use of “rich” for “wicked,” Isa 53:9.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They reap every one his corn – Margin, mingled corn, or dredge. The word used here ( belyl) denotes, properly, meslin, mixed provender, made up of various kinds of grain, as of barley, vetches, etc., prepared for cattle; see the notes at Isa 30:24.
In the field – They break in upon the fields of others, and rob them of their grain, instead of cultivating the earth themselves. So it is rendered by Jerome – Agrum non suum deme-runt; et vineam ejus, quem vi. oppresserint vindemiant. The Septuagint renders it, A field, not their own, they reap down before the time – pro horas.
They gather the vintage of the wicked – Margin, the wicked gather the vintage. Rather, they gather the vintage of the oppressor. It is not the vintage of honest industry; not a harvest which is the result of their own labor, but of plunder. They live by depredations on others. This is descriptive of those who support themselves by robbery.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. They reap every one his corn in the field] This is perfectly characteristic. These wandering hordes often make sudden irruptions, and carry off the harvest of grain, olives, vines, &c., and plunge with it into the wilderness, where none can follow them. The Chaldee gives the same sense: “They reap in a field that is not their own, and cut off the vineyard of the wicked.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They; either,
1. The poor, who are forced to gather in the corn and grapes of their wicked oppressors; or rather,
2. The oppressors, of whom he speaks Job 4:4,5,7.
His corn, i.e. the corn of the wicked, as it is in the next clause. Or, that which
is not their own; as the LXX., and Chaldee, and Vulgar Latin translate it, reading the Hebrew as two distinct words: they reap other mens labours.
In the field, i.e. in the field of the right owner, from whom they take it. He notes their great power and boldness, that they did not come suddenly, and carry away their corn when it was laid up in the barns, or in heaps; but they proceeded leisurely, and staid to reap the corn, and by degrees carried it away, as it were in triumph, not fearing any interruption or hinderance either from God or man.
The vintage of the wicked; of such as themselves: so they promiscuously robbed all, even their own brethren in iniquity; whereby also he may intimate the righteous judgment of God in punishing one wicked man by another, and in depriving men of those goods which they had wickedly gotten. Or, the wicked (the singular number being used collectively for the plural, as is frequent; the oppressors)
gather the vintage, to wit, belonging to other men.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. Like the wild asses (Job24:5) they (these Bedouin robbers) reap (metaphorically) theirvarious grain (so the Hebrew for “corn” means). Thewild ass does not let man pile his mixed provender up in a stable(Isa 30:24); so these robbersfind their food in the open air, at one time in the desert (Job24:5), at another in the fields.
the vintage of thewickedHebrew, “the wicked gather the vintage”;the vintage of robbery, not of honest industry. If we translate”belonging to the wicked,” then it will imply that thewicked alone have vineyards, the “pious poor” (Job24:4) have none. “Gather” in Hebrew, is “gatherlate.” As the first clause refers to the early harvest ofcorn, so the second to the vintage late in autumn.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They reap [everyone] his corn in the field,…. Not the poor, who are obliged to reap the corn of the wicked for them without any wages, as some; but rather the wicked reap the corn of the poor; they are so insolent and impudent, that they do not take the corn out of their barns by stealth, but while it is standing in the field; they come openly and reap it down, as if it was their own, without any fear of God or men: it is observed, that the word k signifies a mixture of the poorer sorts of corn, which is scarce anything better than food for cattle; yet this they cut down and carry off, as forage for their horses and asses at least. Some of the ancient versions, taking it to be two words, render them, “which is not their own” l; they go into a field that is not theirs, and reap corn that do not belong to them, that they have no right unto, and so are guilty of great injustice, and of doing injury to others:
and they gather the vintage of the wicked; gather the grapes off of the vines of wicked men, which are gathered, as the word signifies, at the latter end of the year, in autumn; and though they belong to wicked men like themselves, yet they spare them not, but seize on all that come to hand, whether the property of good men or bad men; and thus sometimes one wicked man is an instrument of punishing another: or “the wicked gather the vintage” m; that is, of the poor; as they reap where they have not sown, they gather of that they have not planted.
k “migma suum”, Bolducius; “farraginem ejus [vel] suam”, Tigurine version, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Michaelis. l Sept. “non suum”, V. L. so the Targum, and Aben Ezra, Grotius, Codurcus. m “et in vinea (aliena) vindemiant impii”, Tigurine version “vineasque vindemiant impii”, Castalio.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(6) They reap every one his corn.Or, probably, the corn, that is, of the wicked tyrant. While they reap his corn and cut his provender, they have to go without themselves.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Corn Various kinds of grain mixed together in the sowing, and which served as fodder for cattle.
Gather They glean the few grapes left in the vineyards of the wicked. These are they whom hunger drives back into the fields of the rich by night; so Merx thinks.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 24:6 They reap [every one] his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked.
Ver. 6. They reap every one his corn in the field ] The poor oppressed are made by them to harvest their crops, and tread their vintages in the end of the year ( sero colligunt ), as the Hebrew importeth, without either food or wages, or so much as a cup to drink, as the eleventh verse sets forth; which is extreme cruelty, and flatly forbidden, Deu 24:14-15 , and order taken that the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn should not be muzzled, Deu 25:4 . Quantum igitur iudicium, saith Brentius, How great judgments of God then will light upon those who do that to men of the same flesh, of the same faith, of the same country, with themselves, which they ought not to do to the brute creatures they make use of! Quod malum in Germania frequentissimum est; Vae igitur Germaniae: This, saith he, is a common sin in Germany; woe, therefore, to Germany. Think the same of England, and take notice that this is one of those crying sins that entereth into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, Jas 5:4 , and he will hear, for he is gracious, Exo 22:27 . The words are otherwise sensed by some; but this to me seemeth most suitable to the subsequent verses.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
every one. Figure of speech Ellipsis. App-6.
his corn. Hebrew. belilo. But if divided thus, beli lo, it means “not his own”. The word “corn” must be supplied as an Ellipsis of the accusative case. See translation below.
the wicked = a lawless one. Hebrew. rasha’. App-44.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
They reap: Deu 28:33, Deu 28:51, Jdg 6:3-6, Mic 6:15
corn: Heb. mingled corn, or, dredge
they gather: etc. Heb. the wicked gather the vintage.
Reciprocal: Job 31:8 – let me Pro 4:17 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
SUCCESSFUL SIN
The vintage of the wicked.
Job 24:6
I. When we think about sin we are almost always most impressed with its disastrousness when it is a failure.When it brought infamy, disease, ruin we were distressed at the spectacle, but, in reality, unrighteousness is never more terrible than when it is successful. Successful sin has a blinding powerit obscures the highest beliefs. If a man once wins in sin, it is a bad lookout for him. When a man begins to steal money, if he is lucky enough to be found outfor that is where the luck lies in his first speculationhe may be saved. But let him succeed, and he goes on to larger villanies.
II. Another thing about successful sin is its torturing power.No man suffers like the man who succeeds. The consciousness of sin poisons everything. Then there is the retributive power of successful sin. Successful sin is a paradox. I do not believe in it when I speak of it. There is no successful sin. Even in this world how wonderfully men are found out! Be sure your sin will find you out! There is the religion of success and the religion of character. The religion of character will turn out at last to be the religion of success.
Illustration
Job laments that the times of punishment are not so explained by God that those who know Him may see and understand His reasons. He then turns to describe the life of the ungodly, who do dark deeds with apparent impunity. A very sad catalogue of crimes follows. The oppression of the needy, the driving away of the ass of the fatherless, the taking of the widows ox for a pledge, the frequenting of the wilderness, the plunder of caravans, regardless of the claims of pity, the stealing the oil and the wine from those who had laboured to produce them, the murdering of the poor labouring man at the dawn, the commissions of crimes at nightsuch are the iniquities which are described. And these are being committed under other forms in Christian England. Wonderful that God should bear with us, but His long-suffering would fain lead men to repent. It is only after long bearing and trial that He cuts down.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Job 24:6. They reap every one his corn in the field The words, every one, are not in the original, and ought not to have been inserted here, as they alter the sense. The clause would be better translated without them. They reap his corn in the field; that is, these plunderers make incursions, reap and take away the corn of the honest, industrious husbandman, which he had sown for the support of his family. They gather the vintage of the wicked Or, rather, the vintage of wickedness; that is, they plunder the vineyards of the honest, just man, as well as his corn-fields.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
24:6 They reap [every one] {f} his corn in the field: and they gather the {g} vintage of the wicked.
(f) Meaning the poor man’s.
(g) Signifying that one wicked man will not spoil another, but for necessity.