Job 24:2

Instances of the wicked doing the worst deeds with seeming impunity (Job 24:2-24).

Some--the wicked.

landmarks--boundaries between different pastures (Deu 19:14; Pro 22:28).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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] Though they eat that on earth which they shall digest in hell. Or, and feed them; viz. openly and impudently, with as much insolence as injustice; and as if they had got them by right, and not by rapine and robbery. Lavater upon the text maketh mention of a certain Helvetian tyrant, who violently took away the oxen from the plough of an honest countryman, and told him that it was fit that clowns should draw the plough themselves, without the help of oxen.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 men’s 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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

24:2-17 This inventory of criminal behaviors focuses first on crimes against the weak (24:2-12) and then on the criminals themselves (24:13-17).

24:2 The law, wisdom literature, and prophecy all condemned the moving of boundary markers (Deut 19:14; 27:17; Prov 22:28; 23:10; see study note on Hos 5:10).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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 ירעו yiru, they destroy, deriving the word, not from רעה raah, to feed, but from רע ra, to rend, to destroy.

The Septuagint had read רעה roch, a shepherd; and therefore have translated ποιμνιον συν ποιμενι ἁρπασαντες, "violently carrying off both the flock and the shepherd."

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(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.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

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.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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, Deu 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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Marks. This was a heinous offence, (Deuteronomy xix. 14.) which Numa punished with death. (Halyc. i.) (Calmet) --- And fed. Septuagint, "and those who fed them."

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

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 men’s 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 neighbour’s 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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Some remove the landmarks. (On this form of wickedness, see Deu_19:14 Deu_27:17 Pro_22:28 Pro_23:10 Hos_5:10) Where neighbouring properties are not divided by fences of any kind, as in the East generally, the only way of distinguishing between one man"s land and another"s is by termini, or "landmarks," which are generally low stone metes or bourns, placed at intervals on the boundary-line. An easy form of robbery was to displace these bourns, putting them further back on one"s neighbour"s land. They violently take away flocks. Others openly drive off their neighbours" flocks from their pastures, mix them with their own flocks, and say that they are theirs. (comp. Job_1:15-17) And feed thereof; rather, and feed them (as in the margin); i.e. pasture them.

Removing the landmarks.

This was an old offence under the Jewish Law. (Deu_19:14) Here it appears first in a list of unjust actions. It introduces us to questions concerning the ethics of property.

I PRIVATE PROPERTY IS RECOGNIZED BY SCRIPTURE. We cannot say that this indubitable fact is a complete answer to the proposals of the socialist, because it is not the function of revelation to determine social systems. It comes in to regulate our conduct under existing arrangements. Still, the recognition of private property shows that it is not in itself an evil thing. It may be urged that similar arguments would apply to polygamy and slavery, both of which are recognized and regulated in the Bible. There is this difference, however, that an enlightened Christian conscience perceives that the last-named practices are evil, and could only have been tolerated for a time to prevent greater evils; but the Christian conscience does not repudiate the idea of private property. Socialism may be fairly presented and argued about on grounds of expediency; but it cannot claim Christian teaching as favouring it rather than a wise and brotherly exercise of the rights of property. The short, temporary experiment at Jerusalem, when the disciples held all things in common, whatever this was (and it was far short of socialism), soon broke down. It was never urged on apostolic authority; it cannot be quoted as the model for all Church life.

II PRIVATE PROPERTY NEEDS CLEAR DEFINITION. There must be landmarks, or there will be trespassing, springing from misunderstanding, leading to quarrelling. Wars between nations arise often out of disputes about boundaries, and private differences most frequently originate in a want of common agreement in the definition of rights. This is true of abstract as well as concrete rights. Nothing is more necessary for the maintenance of social order than that each individual in the state should know the limits that the just claims of others put upon his liberty. Absolute freedom is only possible on the prairie, or for a Robinson Crusoe on his solitary island. Directly we come to live in society we have to study mutual harmony, and to adjust the claims of neighbours. The perfect state becomes a sort of mosaic in which each individual has his place without overlapping that of his neighbour.

III ONLY CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLE WILL PREVENT THE ABUSE OF PRIVATE PROPERTY. Each man is tempted to enlarge upon his rights. Without considering himself a thief, he is urged to remove the landmarks to his own advantage. State justice and the strong arm of the law prevent this wrong as far as possible. But real justice between man and man can never be perfectly established by government. There are innumerable ways in which the strong can oppress the weak, and the cunning impose upon the unwary, without any interference by the law. We must have a spirit of justice in the people to prevent these evils. Now, it is the glory of the Old Testament that it constantly impresses on us the duty of justice and the sin of injustice. This grand lesson is not the less imperative because we live in New Testament times. The grace of Christ is the inspiration of all goodness. No one can be a true Christian who is not upright in business, and straightforward in his dealings with his neighbours. Christian charity does not dispense with the primitive duty of justice. W.F.A.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Connecting Statement:

Job continues speaking.

boundary markers

These are stones or other objects to mark the boundary between the lands owned by different people.

pastures

land with grass for animals to eat

They drive away

"They steal"

those without fathers

"orphans" or "children whose parents have died"

they take the widow's ox as security

"they take widows' oxen to guarantee that the widows will pay back the money that they loaned to those widows"

widow

a woman whose husband has died

as security

A lender would take something from a borrower to ensure that the borrower pays him back.

out of their path

"out of their way" or "off the road"

poor people of the earth all hide themselves

The word "all" is an exaggeration to show that many poor people are afraid of these wicked people. (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)

translationWords

flocks

donkey

cow

earth

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

[There are some who] remove the landmarks Those who habitually remove the landmarks, who purchase fields adjoining the fields of others, and at night widen their [own] borders by placing their fences at night within the territory of their neighbors. (This is the meaning of removing the landmarks, which is translated into Aramaic as מְשַׁנֶּה, changing, because they would change the boundaries.) And they violently take away a flock and pasture it.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.