Job 24:2 — Word Study
WLCגְּבֻל֥וֹת יַשִּׂ֑יגוּ עֵ֥דֶר גָּ֝זְל֗וּ וַיִּרְעֽוּ׃
BSAMen movenâsag▸ [the wicked, evil men] ◂boundary stonesgᵉbûwlâh [land marks, borders] they pasturerâʻâh▸ [feed, care for] stolengâzal■ [plundered, taken by force] flocksʻêder [droves, herds of sheep or cattle]
| Greek | English | Parsing |
|---|---|---|
| גְּבֻל֥וֹת | boundaries | Noun common, feminine plural absolute |
| יַשִּׂ֑יגוּ | people reach | Verb, Hiphil, imperfect third person masculine plural |
| עֵ֥דֶר | flock[s] | Noun common, masculine singular absolute |
| גָּ֝זְל֗וּ | they seize | Verb, Qal, perfect third person common plural |
| וַיִּרְעֽוּ׃ | and they have pastured [them] | Verb, Qal, sequential imperfect third person masculine plural |
Every word in the verse. Click a row to open it in the panel on the left.
| BSB | Men move boundary stones; they pasture stolen flocks. |
| KJV | Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof. |
| ASV | There are that remove the landmarks; They violently take away flocks, and feed them. |
| YLT | The borders they reach, A drove they have taken violently away, Yea, they do evil. |
| WEB | There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them. |
| BBE | The landmarks are changed by evil men, they violently take away flocks, together with their keepers. |
The translations agree on the core actions described in the verse.
The sentence is structured with a main clause followed by a subordinate action, emphasizing the actions of wicked men.
8 commentators on this verse
Gill, Jamieson, Poole, Trapp & more — read them ›
clause
verbסוג
The sentence as the grammar sees it Open the tree ›
Every word here is used elsewhere in the Old Testament.
Bars are logarithmic — אֵת, the commonest word in the Hebrew Bible, stands about 11,000 times, so a linear scale would leave everything else invisible. Click a row to open that word.
Deep Study — Job 24:2
Sections marked generated are written from the data on this page rather than by a named author. Everything else — the lexicon entries, the cross references, the manuscript readings, the counts — is quoted from its source unchanged.
Context — Job's Reflection on Injusticegenerated
Job 24:2 presents a stark observation of how wicked individuals manipulate property lines and tend to livestock that is not theirs. This verse is part of a larger lament where Job questions the justice of God in allowing such actions to go unpunished, reflecting on the plight of the vulnerable in society, as seen in the subsequent verses.
Cross References
| Reference | Text (BSB) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Deuteronomy 19:14 | You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, which was set up by your ancestors to mark the inheritance you shall receive in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess. |
| 2 | Deuteronomy 27:17 | ‘Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary stone.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ |
| 3 | Proverbs 22:28 | Do not move an ancient boundary stone which your fathers have placed. |
| 4 | Proverbs 23:10 | Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, |
| 5 | Hosea 5:10 | The princes of Judah are like those who move boundary stones; I will pour out My fury upon them like water. |
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — 7 references, hung on the phrase they belong to
The Key Word — גְּבֻל֥וֹת, ge.vu.Lotgenerated
The word גְּבֻל֥וֹת (gevuLot) is a feminine plural noun derived from גְּבוּל (gevul), meaning boundaries or borders. It describes a marked limit or edge of territory, similar to the borders of Canaan mentioned in Genesis 10:19.
In this verse, it conveys the idea of wicked men overstepping their bounds, indicating a moral transgression against established limits. The use of this term emphasizes the seriousness of their actions in the context of justice.
How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated
This study reads the verse in the Berean Standard Bible, so the BSB is the wording every comparison below is made against.
Sentence Structuregenerated
The verse consists of two main clauses connected by a conjunction. The first clause, גְּבֻל֥וֹת יַשִּׂ֑יגוּ, features the verb יַשִּׂ֑יגוּ (yasigu), meaning 'they move' or 'they reach', which governs the action of the subject.
The second clause, עֵ֥דֶר גָּ֝זְל֗וּ וַיִּרְעֽוּ, describes what these men do with the stolen flocks, indicating a sequential action of pasturing. The structure emphasizes the actions of the wicked as they violate boundaries and exploit others.
Septuagint Backgroundgenerated
The Septuagint translates גְּבֻל֥וֹת as ὅριον (horion), meaning boundary or limit. This choice aligns with the Hebrew meaning but may suggest a more formal or legalistic interpretation of boundaries.
The Greek term ἁρπάσαντες (harpasantes) for 'they seize' indicates a strong action of taking by force, reinforcing the idea of theft and moral corruption present in the Hebrew.
In plain words — the whole versegenerated
Job 24:2 describes how wicked men move boundary stones and care for flocks that they have stolen. This verse highlights the injustice in society, where the powerful take advantage of the weak.
Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated
Moving boundary stones refers to the act of unlawfully changing property lines to gain more land, which is a serious offense in biblical law, as it undermines justice and fairness.
Pasturing stolen flocks signifies the exploitation and theft of resources from the rightful owners, illustrating the moral decay of society and the lack of accountability for such actions.
This verse reflects Job's broader theme of questioning why the wicked seem to prosper while the innocent suffer, highlighting the apparent absence of divine justice in the world.
Job 24:2 teaches the importance of respecting boundaries and the rights of others, emphasizing that unethical actions lead to societal corruption and injustice.
Reflection Questionsgenerated
- In what ways do I see boundaries being crossed in my own community?
- How can I ensure that I am acting ethically in my dealings with others?
- What steps can I take to support those who are being exploited or taken advantage of?
- How does understanding the context of injustice in Job's time help me address similar issues today?
The early church on this verse — how the Fathers read it
Gregory the Dialogist comments on Job's observations about the wicked, interpreting their actions allegorically as representative of heretics.
Others remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed them. ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION Whom does he denote by the title of 'others,' saving Heretics,Early Church Fathers on Job 24 →
Commentators on this verse — 8 expositors, verse by verse
Each of these wrote on Job 24:2 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.
John Gill1697–1771Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible[Some] remove the landmarks,.... Anciently set to distinguish one man's land from another, to secure property, and preserve from encroachments; but some were so wicked as either secretly in the night
Read John Gill on Job 24 →Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's CommentarySome 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.
Read Robert Jamieson on Job 24 →Matthew Poole1624–1679Matthew Poole's Commentary on the Holy BibleSome remove the landmarks; or, they (i.e. the wicked, of whom he here treats) touch (to wit, in an unlawful manner, and with evil design, as this word is oft used, as ,29 Rth 2:9, so as to invade, or possess, or remove) the landmarks, by which men’ s lands are discerned, and their properties secured; that so they may enlarge their own border by diminishing their neighbour; which is so horrid an act of injustice, that it hath not only been severely forbidden by God, 27:17 23:10, but also declared execrable by the heathens, among whom it was permitted to any man to kill him that did it. Feed thereof; or, feed them. They do not hide or kill them, but openly feed them, either in their oppressed…
Read Matthew Poole on Job 24 →John Trapp1601–1669Trapp's Complete Commentary on the Old and New TestamentsJob 24:2 [Some] remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed [thereof].Ver. 2. Some remove the landmarks] Here he instanceth in all sorts of wicked persons, with their seculi laetitia, impunita nequitia; they go pointblank against God’ s commandments; they please not him, and are contrary to all men; and yet who but they, so long as it will last? Some remove (or touch) the landmarks, which the very heathens held to be sacred, and not once to be touched. Numa, king of the Romans, made a law, that if any hid or removed a landmark he should be slain, by the next that met him, as a sacriligious person, or public pest, Inter ethnicos Terminus numinis loco habitus est. God’ s…
Read John Trapp on Job 24 →Charles John Ellicott1819–1905Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(2) Some remove the landmarks.—Now follows a description of the wrong-doings of various classes of men. The removal of landmarks was expressly provided against by the Mosaic Law (Deuteronomy 19:14; Deuteronomy 27:17). And feed thereof.—Rather, probably, feed them: i.e., pasture them, the more easy to do when the landmarks are so removed.
Read Charles John Ellicott on Job 24 →AdamClarkeAdam Clarke's Commentary on the BibleVerse 2. Some remove the landmarks] Stones or posts were originally set up to ascertain the bounds of particular estates: and this was necessary in open countries, before hedges and fences were formed. Wicked and covetous men often removed the landmarks or termini, and set them in on their neighbours' ground, that, by contracting their boundaries, they might enlarge their own. The law of Moses denounces curses on those who remove their neighbours' landmarks. See Deuteronomy 19:14; Deuteronomy 27:17, and the note on the former place, where the subject is considered at large. They violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.] Mr. Good translates ירעו yiru, they destroy, deriving the word…
Read AdamClarke on Job 24 →CambridgeThe Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges2–4. Job now proceeds to illustrate his complaint of the absence of righteousness in God’s rule of the world. The instances are in the first place general.
Read Cambridge on Job 24 →Albert Barnes1798–1870Barnes' Notes on the BibleSome remove the land-marks - Landmarks are pillars or stones set up to mark the boundaries of a farm.
Read Albert Barnes on Job 24 →The verse in English, compared — 17 translations, and where they part company
Every translation on this page is a decision someone had to make and commit to. Read down a column and you see one translator's judgement; read across a row and you see the range the Greek actually allows. The BSB is the wording the rest of this page is measured against, so it is listed first.
Modern formal
Men move boundary stones; they pasture stolen flocks.
There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.
Men move boundary stones; they pasture stolen flocks.
Men move boundary stones; they seize the flock and pasture them.
Tyndale line
Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.
There are that remove the landmarks; They violently take away flocks, and feed them.
There are that remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed them.
Some remove the landmarks: they violently take away flocks, and their feed.
Some remoue the land marks, that rob the flockes and feede thereof.
Strictly literal
They remove the landmarks; they violently take away the flocks and pasture them;
The borders they reach, A drove they have taken violently away, Yea, they do evil.
They reach the borders, || They have taken a drove away violently, || Indeed, they do evil.
[The wicked] remove landmarks: they rob flocks, and feed them.
There are wicked people who remove boundary markers; there are wicked people who take away flocks by force and put them in their own pastures.
From the Latin
Some have removed landmarks, have taken away flocks by force, and fed them.
Simplified
The wicked move boundary stones; they seize other people's flocks and move them to their own pastures.
The landmarks are changed by evil men, they violently take away flocks, together with their keepers.
Counted from the translations carried on this site, not from a survey of every English Bible. A rendering shared by many versions is usually inherited rather than independently arrived at — the Tyndale line in particular runs through most of them.
The sentence as the grammar sees it — from the MACULA Hebrew treebank
This is not our own analysis: it is the scholarly syntax tree for the verse, showing how the clause actually holds together.
Boxes are the grammarian's groupings — clause, noun phrase, prepositional phrase.
The four witnesses to this verse — Masoretic, Septuagint, Samaritan, Qumran
The Masoretic Text reads: גְּבֻל֥וֹת יַשִּׂ֑יגוּ עֵ֥דֶר גָּ֝זְל֗וּ וַיִּרְעֽוּ׃. The Septuagint matches four of the five words, maintaining the core meaning of the Hebrew text while presenting it in a different syntactical structure.
גְּבֻל֥וֹת יַשִּׂ֑יגוּ עֵ֥דֶר גָּ֝זְל֗וּ וַיִּרְעֽוּ׃
4 of the 5 words are matched. This is the word-by-word correspondence, not the Septuagint's own sentence — its word order and its articles are its own.
Four traditions, not one. “On the leather” means the letters physically survive on the scroll, as against letters an editor has supplied to fill a hole in it — a restoration is a scholar’s reading, not a reading of the manuscript. Words in [square brackets] are supplied; the notes count them apart from what survives.
The map of this verse — what each word keeps company with
This is a map of two things, both counted rather than judged. Company kept: which words stand within three words of each of these, anywhere in the Hebrew Bible — the thicker the line, the more often the pair meet compared with chance. Built from: the words a word is made out of, taken from its own Strong’s entry. It is not a map of meaning: nothing here claims two words mean the same thing. Click any circle to see the numbers behind it.
Lexicons — every word in Job 24:2
One dossier per word, with every reference work grouped by kind — Hebrew lexicons, morphology, Bible dictionaries, topical chains and the English of the translators themselves. The verse sits at the head of each block with the word under study lit, so you never lose your place. The panel above gives the short answer; this is the long one, and it is the part of the page worth indexing.
Every entry below is the lexicographer's own text. On the Hebrew: Brown-Driver-Briggs entire and its gloss set, Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, and Tyndale House's Translators Brief lexicon. Where a cell says a work has no entry, that work genuinely has none for this word.
גְּבוּלָה (gbuwlah) refers to a border or boundary, indicating a limit or region. It is a feminine noun derived from גְּבוּל (gbul), which also relates to boundaries and landmarks. The term encompasses meanings such as coast and place, but no specific Old Testament verse is cited.
[גְּבוּלָה] n.f. border, boundary
ref
H1367 [גְּבוּלָה] border, boundary
1367 gbuwlah gheb-oo-law'
or (shortened) gbulah {gheb-oo-law'}; feminine of 1366; a
boundary, region:--border, bound, coast, landmark. place.
see HEBREW for 01366
גְּבוּלָה (ge.vu.lah) — border.
border, boundary
N-fp — Noun common · feminine plural absoluteHNcfpa
נָשַׂג (nasag) is a Hebrew verb primarily found in the Hiphil form, meaning to reach or overtake. It encompasses a range of meanings including the ability to attain or secure something, as well as the literal act of reaching or taking hold. The entries consistently highlight its figurative use, indicating sufficiency or capability.
[נָשַׂג] vb. only Hiph. reach, overtake
Hiph.
overtake
reach, attain
cause to reach, bring, put
fig. one’s hand has reached, i.e. one is able, or has enough
base
H5381 נָשַׂג only Hiph. reach, overtake
5381 nasag naw-sag'
a primitive root; to reach (literally or
figuratively):--ability, be able, attain (unto), (be able to,
can) get, lay at, put, reach, remove, wax rich, X surely,
(over-)take (hold of, on, upon).
נָשַׂג (na.sag) — to overtake.
1) to reach, overtake, take hold upon
1a) (Hiphil)
1a1) to overtake
1a2) to reach, attain to, cause to reach
1a3) to be able to secure, reach, have enough
V-Hiphil-Imperf-3mp — Verb · Hiphil · imperfect third person masculine pluralHVhi3mp
עֵ֫דֶר (eder) refers to a flock or herd of animals. It is derived from a root meaning to arrange or muster, indicating a gathering of livestock. The term encompasses both flocks and herds, highlighting its use in contexts related to groups of animals.
עֵ֫דֶר n.m. flock, herd
base
H5739 עֵ֫דֶר flock, herd
5739 `eder ay'-der
from 5737; an arrangement, i.e. muster (of animals):--drove,
flock, herd.
see HEBREW for 05737
עֵ֫דֶר (e.der) — flock.
1) flock, herd
1a) flock
1b) herds, flocks and herds
N-ms — Noun common · masculine singular absoluteHNcmsa
גָּזַל (gazal) is a Hebrew verb that means to tear away, seize, or rob. It is built from a primitive root and covers actions like plundering or taking away by force. The verb appears in both the Qal and Niphal forms, indicating direct action and a passive state of being robbed, respectively.
גָּזַל vb. tear away, seize, rob
Qal tear away, rob
Niph. subj. sleep
base
H1497 גָּזַל tear away, seize, rob
1497 gazal gaw-zal'
a primitive root; to pluck off; specifically to flay, strip
or rob:--catch, consume, exercise (robbery), pluck (off), rob,
spoil, take away (by force, violence), tear.
גָּזַל (ga.zal) — to plunder.
1) to tear away, seize, plunder, tear off, pull off, rob, take away by force
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to tear away, rob
1a2) to seize, plunder (with acc cognate)
1b) (Niphal)
1b1) to be robbed
1b2) to be taken away
V-Qal-Perf-3cp — Verb · Qal · perfect third person common pluralHVqp3cp
The Hebrew word רָעָה (*ra'ah*) is built from a primitive root meaning to tend or pasture a flock. It covers a range of meanings including to graze, rule, associate with, and befriend. The term appears in contexts related to shepherding and companionship, with a specific mention of the 'binding-house of shepherds' in 2 Kings 10:12.
בֵּית־עֵ֫קֶד הָרֹעִים perh. n.pr.loc. (binding-house of the shepherds) 2 K 10:12
base
רָעָה 167 vb. pasture, tend, graze
Qal
trans.
intrans.
Niph. poss.
Hiph. v.
base
[רָעָה] vb. prob. associate with
Qal cherish faithfulness
Hithp. do not make companionship with a bad-tempered man
base
[רָעָה] vb. denom. Pi. be a special friend;—Ju 14:20
ref
H7462a בֵּית־עֵ֫קֶד הָרֹעִים binding-house of shepherds H7462b רָעָה pasture, tend, graze H7462c רָעָה prob. associate with H7462d רָעָה vb. denom. Pi. be a special friend
7462 ra`ah raw-aw'
a primitive root; to tend a flock; i.e. pasture it;
intransitively, to graze (literally or figuratively);
generally to rule; by extension, to associate with (as a
friend):--X break, companion, keep company with, devour, eat
up, evil entreat, feed, use as a friend, make friendship with,
herdman, keep (sheep)(-er), pastor, + shearing house,
shepherd, wander, waste.
בֵּית־עֵ֫קֶד הָרֹעִים (bet-e.qed ha.ro.im) — House of Shepherds.
Ra'ah = "pasturing"
perh. "binding-house of the shepherds"
רָעָה (ra.ah) — to pasture.
1) to pasture, tend, graze, feed
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to tend, pasture
1a1a) to shepherd
1a1b) of ruler, teacher (fig)
1a1c) of people as flock (fig)
1a1d) shepherd, herdsman (subst)
1a2) to feed, graze
1a2a) of cows, sheep etc (literal)
1a2b) of idolater, Israel as flock (fig)
1b) (Hiphil) shepherd, shepherdess
Also means: ro.i (רֹעִי "to shepherd" H7473)
רָעָה (ra.ah) — to accompany.
1) to associate with, be a friend of (meaning probable)
1a) (Qal) to associate with
1b) (Hithpael) to be companions
רָעָה (ra.ah) — to befriend.
(Piel) to be a special friend
Conj | V-Qal-ConsecImperf-3mp — Verb · Qal · sequential imperfect third person masculine pluralHc/Vqw3mp