Job 24:6

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.

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 24:6. 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.

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

24:6 glean in the vineyards of the wicked: Job was depicting the desperate condition of the poor. If their fields had been stolen like Naboth’s vineyard (24:2; see 1 Kgs 21:1-29), the poor would harvest for the thieving owners what should have been their own crops; instead of owning the whole crop, they would get just the leftover pickings for themselves. Perhaps the point is that the poor were forced to glean from the fields of wicked people who left no gleanings (Lev 19:10; 23:22), instead of being able to glean from the righteous, who leave something for the poor (Lev 19:9-10; 23:22; Ruth 2:1-23).

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

Meaning, the poor man’s.

Signifying, that one wicked man will not spoil another, but for necessity.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Like the wild asses (Job 24:5) they (these Bedouin robbers) reap (metaphorically) their various grain (so the Hebrew for "corn" means). The wild ass does not let man pile his mixed provender up in a stable (Isa 30:24); so these robbers find their food in the open air, at one time in the desert (Job 24:5), at another in the fields.

the vintage of the wicked--Hebrew, "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 the wicked alone have vineyards, the "pious poor" (Job 24:4) have none. "Gather" in Hebrew, is "gather late." As the first clause refers to the early harvest of corn, so the second to the vintage late in autumn.

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

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."

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

(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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

They reap every one his corn - Margin, “mingled corn,” or “dredge.” The word used here (בליל belı̂yl) 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 - πρὸ ὥρας pro hōras.

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.

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

Not, is omitted by the Protestants. (Haydock) --- Hebrew, "they reap in the field food for the cattle." (Calmet) --- His. Hebrew, "the wicked man’s vineyard." (Haydock) --- They do not examine whether the person whom they plunder be just or not. (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "they have reaped before the season the field which was not theirs. But the poor (helpless men) have laboured in the vineyards of the wicked without wages or meat." (Haydock)

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).

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 men’s 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.

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

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.

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

They reap every one his corn in the field. When they have scoured the desert, the marauders approach the cultivated ground bordering on it, and thence carry off, each of them. a quantity of "fodder," or "provender" (Revised Version), for the sustentation of their horses. And they gather the vintage of the wicked; rather, as in the margin, and the wicked gather the vintage. (So Rosenmuller and Professor Lee.) Sometimes they burst into the vineyards, and rob them, carrying off the ripe grapes.

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

They - The oppressors. Wicked - Of such as themselves: so they promiscuously robbed all, even their brethren in iniquity.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

In the field of others.

his produce Heb. בְּלִילוֹ [like] יְבוּלוּ, his produce.

they reap to steal it.

and the wicked gather the plants of the vineyard Heb. יְלַקֵּשׁוּ. And [from] the vineyards of others these wicked men take their fruit; espreinment in Old French. They take their לֶקֶש. לֶקֶש is an expression of a growth of produce, as in (Amos 7:1), at the beginning of the shooting up of the grain, which Jonathan renders. צִמוּחַ, growing. And so did Rabbi Eleazar [Hakalir] establish (in the Hoshanah “Soil from curse”): produce לֶקֶש) from locusts. (Another interpretation: and they delay the vineyard of the wicked. They delay it from destruction, because they eat up [the vineyards] of the poor and the orphans. יְלַקֵּשׁוּ is like (below 29:23), “and they opened their mouth (למלקוש) for a long time,” and like (Gen. 30:42), “and the late ones (לקישיא) were Laban’s.”

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.