“They spend the night naked, without clothing, And have no covering against the cold.
Parallel translations
- WEB They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.
- KJV They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold.
- BSB Without clothing, they spend the night naked; they have no covering against the cold.
- NKJV They spend the night naked, without clothing, And have no covering in the cold.
- NLT All night they lie naked in the cold, without clothing or covering.
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 poor sleep naked and exposed, having no covering in the cold. It matters as a stark image of those stripped bare by oppression.
Overview
Job depicts the destitute lying through the night without clothing or shelter against the cold. They have been robbed even of basic protection from the elements. The Law required returning a poor man's cloak by nightfall (Exod. 22:26-27), so this neglect is a direct violation of God's compassionate commands.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Exod 22:26–27If you take your neighbor’s garment as collateral, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down,
- Job 22:6For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
- Deut 24:11–13You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge outside to you.
- Acts 9:31So the assemblies throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, and were built up. They were multiplied, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
- Job 31:19–20if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering;
- Gen 31:40This was my situation: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes.
- Prov 31:21She is not afraid of the snow for her household; for all her household are clothed with scarlet.
- Isa 58:7Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?
- Job 24:10So that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.
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 24:7 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.