Teks -- Job 24:5 (NET)

24:5 Like wild donkeys in the desert they go out to their labor, seeking diligently for food; the wasteland provides food for them and for their children.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Job 24:5 - Wild asses

Which are lawless, and fierce, and greedy of prey.

Wesley: Job 24:5 - Desert

Which is the proper habitation of wild asses.

Wesley: Job 24:5 - They

The oppressors.

Wesley: Job 24:5 - Go

To spoil and rob.

JFB: Job 24:5 - wild asses

(Job 11:12). So Ishmael is called a "wild ass-man"; Hebrew (Gen 16:12). These Bedouin robbers, with the unbridled wildness of the ass of the desert, go forth thither. Robbery is their lawless "work." The desert, which yields no food to other men, yields food for the robber and his children by the plunder of caravans.

JFB: Job 24:5 - rising betimes

In the East travelling is begun very early, before the heat comes on.

Clarke: Job 24:5 - Rising betimes for a prey

Rising betimes for a prey - The general sense here seems plain enough. There are some who live a lawless roaming life: make a predatory life their employment; for this purpose, frequent the wilderness, where they seize on and appropriate whatsoever they find, and by this method they and their families are supported. Mr. Good says: "The sense has never yet been understood by any commentator;"and hence he proposes a different division of the words, placing ערבה arabah , the desert or wilderness, in the first hemistich, thus: -

"Rising early for the pillage of the wilderness

The bread of themselves and of their children.

Others think that the words are spoken solely of the poor under the hand of oppression, who are driven away from their homes, and obliged to seek such support as the wilderness can afford. Such was originally the state of the Bedouins, and of the wandering Arab hordes in general: the oppression of the tyrannous governors obliged them to seek refuge in the deserts, where they still live in a roaming predatory life.

TSK: Job 24:5 - wild asses // rising // the wilderness

wild asses : Job 39:5-7; Jer 2:24; Hos 8:9

rising : Job 24:14; Pro 4:16; Hos 7:6; Mic 2:1; Zep 3:3; Joh 18:28; Act 23:12

the wilderness : Job 5:5, Job 12:6; Gen 16:12, Gen 27:40

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Job 24:5 - As wild asses // Go they // To their work // The wilderness yieldeth food for them // For their children

As wild asses which are wild, and lawless, and unteachable, and fierce, and greedy of prey, or food, which they snatch out of the goods or labours of the husbandman; in all which they are fit emblems of these men. Or, these wild men ; for so this word signifies, Gen 16:12 , as elsewhere wild asses . The particle as is not in the Hebrew. In the desert , which is the proper habitation of wild asses, Jer 2:24 . If this be understood of the wild men, he placeth them in the desert and wilderness , either because they by their spoils and violences have destroyed or driven away the people, as is intimated, Job 24:4 , and thereby turned populous places into deserts; or because such places as have but few houses and inhabitants (which are oft so called, as Gen 21:20,21 Jos 15:61,62 1Ki 2:34 9:15 Isa 42:11 Mat 3:1 ) are most fit for their robberies.

Go they either,

1. The poor, whom they spoiled and drove away from their own former habitations into deserts, where they hid themselves, and wrought hard for a subsistence. Or rather,

2. The oppressors, who are more fitly compared to wild asses, and more truly said to seek for prey, than those poor oppressed persons mentioned Job 24:4 , and of whom he speaks both in the foregoing and following verses.

To their work i.e. to spoil and rob, which is their constant work and trade.

The wilderness yieldeth food for them they are so diligent and industrious in that work, that they will fetch food for them and theirs even out of desert places, in which the owners can very hardly subsist.

For their children or servants ; for the word signifies both children and servants , even the whole family.

Haydock: Job 24:5 - Others

Others. Hebrew, "Behold as," (Haydock) which may be explained of these oppressors, or rather of the poor, who are forced to flee before them to seek for food. (Calmet) ---

The Vulgate and Septuagint seem more favourable to the former supposition. (Haydock)

Gill: Job 24:5 - Behold, as wild asses in the desert // they go forth to their work // rising betimes for a prey // the wilderness yieldeth food for them, and for their children

Behold, as wild asses in the desert,.... The word "as" is a supplement, and may be omitted, and the words be interpreted literally of wild asses, as they are by Sephorno, whose proper place is in the wilderness, to which they are used, and where their food is provided for them, and which they diligently seek for, for them and their young; and so the words may be descriptive of the place where the poor hide themselves, and of the company they are obliged to keep; but the Targum supplies the note of similitude as we do; and others ⁱ observe it to be wanting, and so it may respect wicked men before described, who may be compared to the wild asses of the wilderness for their folly and stupidity, man being born like a wild ass's colt, Job 11:12; and for their lust and wantonness, and for their rebellion against God and his laws, and their unteachableness. Perhaps some regard may be had to the wild Arabs that were in Job's neighbourhood, the descendants of Ishmael, called the wild man, as he is in Gen 16:12; who lived by plunder and robbery, as these here:

they go forth to their work: of thieving and stealing, robbing and plundering, as their trade, and business, and occupation of life, and as naturally and constantly as men go to their lawful employment, and as if it was one:

rising betimes for a prey; getting up early in a morning to meet the industrious traveller on the road, and make a prey of him, rob him of what he has about him; for they cannot sleep unless they do mischief:

the wilderness yieldeth food for them, and for their children; though they are lurking in a wilderness where no sustenance is to be had, yet, by robbing everyone that passes by, they get enough for them and their families: though some understand all this of the poor, who are obliged to hide themselves from their oppressors, and go into the wilderness in droves like wild asses, and as timorous and as swift as they in fleeing; and are forced to hard service, and to rise early to earn their bread, and get sustenance for their families; and who in the main are obliged to live on berries and roots, and what a wild desert will afford; but the, word "prey" is not applicable to the pains and labours of such industrious people, wherefore the former sense is best; and besides, there seems to be one continued account of wicked men.