The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.
Parallel translations
- WEB The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief.
- BSB When daylight is gone, the murderer rises to kill the poor and needy; in the night he is like a thief.
- NKJV The murderer rises with the light; He kills the poor and needy; And in the night he is like a thief.
- NASB “The murderer arises at dawn; He kills the poor and the needy, And at night he is like a thief.
- NLT The murderer rises in the early dawn to kill the poor and needy; at night he is a thief.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The murderer kills the poor at dawn and acts as a thief by night. It matters because it exposes violence done against the helpless.
Overview
Job pictures the murderer rising early to slay the poor and needy, then prowling like a thief in the dark. Such a person exploits both day and night for evil. The verse reveals the depth of human depravity that only the redeeming work of Christ can finally cleanse and judge.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Ps 10:8–10He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.
- Mic 2:1–2Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.
- Rev 3:3Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
- 1 Th 5:2For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
- 2 Sam 11:14–17And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
- Eph 5:7–11Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
- Luke 12:39And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 24:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.