In the dark they break into houses Which they marked for themselves in the daytime; They do not know 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.
- BSB In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves in, never to experience 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 everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.
- Eph 5:11–13Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them.
- Job 24:13“These are of those who rebel against the light. They don’t know its ways, nor stay in its paths.
- Matt 24:43But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.
- Matt 6:19“Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal;
- Ezek 12:12“‘The prince who is among them will bear on his shoulder in the dark, and will go out. They will dig through the wall to carry out that way. He will cover his face, because he will not see the land with his eyes.
- Ezek 12:5–7Dig through the wall in their sight, and carry your stuff out that way.
- Job 38:12–13“Have you commanded the morning in your days, and caused the dawn to know its place;
- Exod 22:2–3If the thief is found breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt of bloodshed for him.
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.