In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves in, never to experience the light.
Parallel translations
- WEB In the dark they dig through houses. They shut themselves up in the daytime. They don’t know the light.
- KJV In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.
- NKJV In the dark they break into houses Which they marked for themselves in the daytime; They do not know the light.
- NASB “In the darkness they dig into houses, They shut themselves up by day; They do not know the light.
- NLT Thieves break into houses at night and sleep in the daytime. They are not acquainted with the light.
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
Thieves break into houses by night and shun the daylight. It matters because the wicked love darkness and avoid the light.
Overview
Job notes that such men dig through walls at night and shut themselves away by day, for they do not know the light. Their lives are structured around concealment and evil. This love of darkness over light is the very condition the gospel exposes, calling sinners out of darkness into God's marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- John 3:20Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
- Eph 5:11–13Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
- Job 24:13Then there are those who rebel against the light, not knowing its ways or staying on its paths.
- Matt 24:43But understand this: If the homeowner had known in which watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.
- Matt 6:19Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
- Ezek 12:12And at dusk the prince among them will lift his bags to his shoulder and go out. They will dig through the wall to bring him out. He will cover his face so he cannot see the land.
- Ezek 12:5–7As they watch, dig through the wall and carry your belongings out through it.
- Job 38:12–13In your days, have you commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place,
- Exod 22:2–3If a thief is caught breaking in and is beaten to death, no one shall be guilty of bloodshed.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 24:16 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.