Job 24:3

Some ◄take away/steal► the donkeys that belong to orphans, and they take widow’s oxen to guarantee that the widows will pay back the money that they loaned to those widows.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

In Context

2Some evil people remove the markers of boundaries of other people’s land, in order to steal their land; they seize/steal other people’s sheep and put them in their own pastures.

4Some shove poor people off the road (OR, prevent poor people from ◄obtaining their rights/being treated justly►), and they force poor people to find places to hide from them.

Read all of Job 24

Cross References

Deuteronomy 24:6“Anyone who lends money to someone else is allowed to require that person to give him something to guarantee that he will pay back the money that he borrowed. But he must not take from him his ◄millstone/stone for grinding grain►. That would be taking the millstone that his family needs to grind the grain to make the bread they need to stay alive.

Deuteronomy 24:10“When you lend something to someone, do not go into his house to take the cloak that he says that he will give you to guarantee that he will return what he has borrowed.

1 Samuel 12:3Now tell me, while Yahweh is listening, and while the king whom he has chosen is listening: whose ox or donkey have I stolen during all those years? Whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed/treated badly? From whom have I accepted a bribe, in order that I would ignore the evil things he had done? If I have done any of those things, tell me, and I will pay back what I owe.”

Job 31:16“I have guided orphans from the time that they were born; I have taken care of them since they were young. So, if it were true that I ate all my food myself and did not share some of it with orphans, or that I refused to give poor people the things that they wanted, or that I caused widows to live ◄in despair/without hope that they would receive any help from anyone►,

Matthew Henry on Job 24:2-13

Outward Prosperity of the Wicked. ( b. c. 1520.) 1 Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days? 2 Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof. 3 They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge. 4 They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together. 5 Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food… Read the whole commentary →

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