Job 24 - Introduction

The Divine Rectitude which Job misses in his own instance he equally misses on the broad field of the World

The same thought of the absence of any righteous rule of the world is carried through this chapter and illustrated by many examples. Job turns from his own history and surveys that of the people around him, and as his own instance illustrated the misery of the just, the instances about him illustrate the felicity, the long-continued power, the freedom from visitation by God, and the natural death of the wicked. Thus both sides of his thesis are supported, that God's rule of the world is not retributive, and that the principles insisted on by his friends find no justification in the world as it is.

Job begins by asking, Why are not times (of assize) appointed by the Almighty? and, Why do they that know Him not see His days (of judgment)? This is Job's complaint, that God the judge and ruler of the world fails to judge and rule it in righteousness. Men do not behold Him appointing times and holding days for doing judgment on wrong, and righting the oppressed. On the contrary, the powerful tyrants oppress and the miserable poor are oppressed (Job 24:3), and God regards not the wrong (Job 24:12).

Besides these public wrongdoers, there are other transgressors who shun the light. The murderer, the adulterer, and the robber ply their unhallowed trade in the darkness (Job 24:13). And all of them, instead of being visited by God with sudden judgments, as the Friends insisted and as the popular literature described (Job 24:18), are upheld in power by God, made to dwell in safety, and at last brought in peace to a natural death "like all others" (Job 24:22).

Finally Job, too sure of his facts, exclaims, Who will make me a liar? Who will disprove the things now advanced? (Job 24:25).