The murderer rises with the light; He kills the poor and needy; And in the night he is like 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.
- KJV The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.
- BSB When daylight is gone, the murderer rises to kill the poor and needy; 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 lies in wait near the villages. From ambushes, he murders the innocent. His eyes are secretly set against the helpless.
- Mic 2:1–2Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil on their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand.
- Rev 3:3Remember therefore how you have received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If therefore you won’t watch, I will come as a thief, and you won’t know what hour I will come upon you.
- 1 Th 5:2For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night.
- 2 Sam 11:14–17In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
- Eph 5:7–11Therefore don’t be partakers with them.
- Luke 12:39But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not allowed his house to be broken into.
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.