Job 24:17

If one know, etc.] RV 'For they know (are familiar with) the terrors.' The shadow of death] i.e. midnight. Light they shrink from, but midnight is their day.

18-21. These vv. cannot express the sentiments of Job, and we must either, with RM, prefix 'ye say,' to indicate that Job is giving the views of the friends, or remove it from this speech either as an insertion or as part of a speech by one of the friends which has been displaced, or possibly as an interruption by one of them. RV renders Job 24:18, 'He is swift upon the face of the waters; Their portion is cursed in the earth: He turneth not by the way of the vineyards.' The meaning is apparently that the doom of the wicked comes rapidly; there is a curse upon his property; he goes no more to gaze upon its prosperity. Job 24:19 then describe the complete destruction of sinners. Job 24:21 render, 'Even he that evil entreated,' etc.

22-24. In these vv. we have Job's own view, viz. that (22) God continues the wicked in power, (23) His eyes watch over their welfare, and (24) when they die, it is in the maturity of old age like ripe ears of corn.