They push the needy off the road and force all the poor of the land into hiding.
Parallel translations
- WEB They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.
- KJV They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together.
- NKJV They push the needy off the road; All the poor of the land are forced to hide.
- NASB “They push the needy aside from the road; The poor of the land have to hide themselves together.
- NLT The poor are pushed off the path; the needy must hide together for safety.
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 needy are pushed off the road and the poor forced into hiding. It matters as a picture of the powerless driven out by the strong.
Overview
Job describes how oppressors shove the needy aside, compelling the poor of the land to hide for survival. The marginalized are crowded out of ordinary life by injustice. This grief over the trampled poor reflects God's own concern, fully revealed in Christ who came to bring good news to the poor (Luke 4:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Prov 28:28When the wicked come to power, people hide themselves; but when they perish, the righteous flourish.
- Job 24:14When daylight is gone, the murderer rises to kill the poor and needy; in the night he is like a thief.
- Ezek 22:29The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy and have exploited the foreign resident without justice.
- Amos 2:7They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the earth; they push the needy out of their way. A man and his father have relations with the same girl and so profane My holy name.
- Job 30:25Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has my soul not grieved for the needy?
- Ps 109:16For he never thought to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and brokenhearted, even to their death.
- Job 29:12because I rescued the poor who cried out and the fatherless who had no helper.
- Jas 5:4–6Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
- Ezek 18:18As for his father, he will die for his own iniquity, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother, and did what was wrong among his people.
- Isa 10:2to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder.
- Ps 41:1For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Blessed is the one who cares for the poor; the LORD will deliver him in the day of trouble.
- Job 31:16If I have denied the desires of the poor or allowed the widow’s eyes to fail,
- Amos 8:4–6Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land,
- Prov 28:12When the righteous triumph, there is great glory, but when the wicked rise, men hide themselves.
- Prov 30:14there is a generation whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are knives, devouring the oppressed from the earth and the needy from among men.
- Ezek 18:12He oppresses the poor and needy; he commits robbery and does not restore a pledge. He lifts his eyes to idols; he commits abominations.
- Mic 2:1–2Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.
- Prov 22:16Oppressing the poor to enrich oneself or giving gifts to the rich will surely lead to poverty.
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 24:4 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.