Job 24:14

The murderer rising with the light,.... The light of the morning, before the sun is risen, about the time the early traveller is set out on his journey, and men go to distant markets to buy and sell

Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof. Instances of the wicked doing the worst deeds with seeming impunity. Some - the wicked.

With the light; as soon as the light appears, using no less diligence in his wicked practices, than labourers do in their honest and daily employments. Killeth the poor and needy; where he finds nothing to satisfy his covetousness, he exerciseth his cruelty. Is as a thief, i.e. he is really a thief; the particle as being oft used to express, not the resemblance but the truth of the thing, as . In the night they rob men secretly and cunningly, as in the day-time they do it more openly and avowedly.

Job 24:14 The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.Ver. 14. The murderer rising with the light] Sometimes, while it is yet darkish; for here Job showeth how those that do evil hate the light, and take the fittest opportunities for a dispatch of the deeds of darkness, daily digging descents down to hell, and hastening thereto, as if they feared it would be full before they came thither. They spend, therefore, the whole day in wicked pranks and practices, prout videtur commodum, as shall seem best for their purposes, interdiu latrones, nocte fures agunt. By day they do what mischief they may in woods and deserts; at night they return into the city, and there play the thieves, hoping to do it unobserved. Thus every such one may better say than that ancient did, Totum tempus perdidi, quia perdite vixi, I have lost all my time, by spending it loosely and basely (Bernard). I have been too faithful a drudge to the devil, whom Christ calleth a murderer, John 8:44, and Tertullian calleth Furem veritatis, a thief of the truth. Two notable thieves of Naples (whereof one was called Paternoster, and the other Ave Maria) had murdered a hundred and sixteen different people, at different times and in various places (Rain. de Idol. Rom. praefat.). These were worthily put to a cruel death by the magistrate; who possibly might, by his connivance and slackness in doing his office, be himself guilty of some of those murders; since, to restrain justice is to support sin, and not to correct is to consent to the crime. Hemingius maketh mention of a felon, who was indicted from seven murders; while the judge was studying what grievous punishment should be inflicted upon such a bloody villain, an advocate steps to the bar, and pleading for him, proved, That the judge was guilty of six of the murders; for the felon was not put to death for the first offence. Killeth the poor and needy] Without authority (such as magistrates have to kill malefactors, and soldiers in a lawful battle to kill their enemies. Sum Talbotti pro occidere inimicos meos; I am Talbot’ s for to kill my enemies, this blunt boisterous sentence was written upon the renowned L. Talbot’ s sword, while he warred in France), and without any present necessity for his own lawful defence, as Exodus 2:22, when he must either kill or be killed; provided that he endeavour first to save himself by flight, if possibly he can (Speed.). For that tenet of Soto, a Popish casuist, is the most false, That it is lawful for a man in his own defence to kill another, because it is a shame to flee, Quia fuga est ignominiosa. And that also of Navarrus, that for a box on the ear it is not unlawful to kill another, for the recovering of his honour, Ad honorem recuperandum.

(14) With the light.—The mention of light as a moral essence suggests its physical analogue, so that by the contrast of the one with the violence done to the other, the moral turpitude of the wrong-doing is heightened. It seems impossible to interpret the light in the former case (Job 24:13) otherwise than morally, and if so, the mention of the “ways thereof” and the “paths thereof” is very remarkable. The order in which these crimes of murder, adultery, and theft are mentioned according, as it does, with that in the Decalogue, is, at all events, suggestive of acquaintance with it.

Verse 14. The murderer rising with the light] Perhaps the words should be read as Mr. Good has done: - With the daylight ariseth the murderer; Poor and needy, he sheddeth blood. This description is suitable to a highwayman; one who robs in daylight, and who has been impelled by poverty and distress to use this most unlawful and perilous mode to get bread; and for fear of being discovered or taken, commits murder, and thus adds crime to crime. In the night is as a thief.] Having been a highwayman in the daytime, he turns footpad or housebreaker by night; and thus goes on from sin to sin. There have been several instances like the case above, where poverty and distress have induced a man to go to the highway and rob, to repair the ruin of himself and family. I shall introduce an authentic story of this kind, which the reader may find at the end of this chapter. See Clarke on Job 24:25.

14. with the light] i. e. toward day-break, while it is still partially dark. At such an hour the murderer waylays the solitary traveller. is as a thief] i. e. acts the thief, becomes a thief.

The murderer - One of the instances, referred to in the previous verse, of those who perform their deeds in darkness. Rising with the light - Hebrew לאור lā'ôr.

14. With the light — Literally, At the light. Toward daybreak, the time when travellers in the East, on account of the extreme heat of the day, pursue their journey.