In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not 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.
- BSB In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves in, never to experience 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 3:20For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
- Eph 5:11–13And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
- Job 24:13They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.
- Matt 24:43But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
- Matt 6:19Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
- Ezek 12:12And the prince that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the twilight, and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, that he see not the ground with his eyes.
- Ezek 12:5–7Dig thou through the wall in their sight, and carry out thereby.
- Job 38:12–13Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place;
- Exod 22:2–3If a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.
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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.