Job 24:2

Easy-to-Read Version

"People move property markers to get more of their neighbor's land. People steal flocks and lead them to other grasslands.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The wicked displace boundary markers.They steal a flock and provide pasture for it.

Hebrew Names Version
There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.

King James Version
Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.

English Standard Version
Some move landmarks; they seize flocks and pasture them.

New Century Version
Wicked people take other people's land; they steal flocks and take them to new pastures.

New English Translation
Men move boundary stones; they seize the flock and pasture them.

Amplified Bible
"Some remove the landmarks; They [violently] seize and pasture flocks [appropriating land and flocks openly].

New American Standard Bible
"People remove landmarks; They seize and devour flocks.

World English Bible
There are people who remove the landmarks. They violently take away flocks, and feed them.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Some remoue the land marks, that rob the flockes and feede thereof.

Legacy Standard Bible
Some move the boundaries;They seize and devour flocks.

Berean Standard Bible
Men move boundary stones; they pasture stolen flocks.

Contemporary English Version
Sinners remove boundary markers and take care of sheep they have stolen.

Complete Jewish Bible
There are those who move boundary markers; they carry off flocks and pasture them;

Darby Translation
They remove the landmarks; they violently take away the flocks and pasture them;

George Lamsa Translation
The wicked remove the landmarks; they violently take away a flock.

Good News Translation
People move property lines to get more land; they steal sheep and put them with their own flocks.

Lexham English Bible
They remove border stones; they seize flocks, and they pasture them.

Literal Translation
They move the landmarks; they seize and pasture flocks;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For some me there be, that remoue other mes londe markes: that robbe them of their catell, and kepe the same for their owne:

American Standard Version
There are that remove the landmarks; They violently take away flocks, and feed them.

Bible in Basic English
The landmarks are changed by evil men, they violently take away flocks, together with their keepers.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
There are that remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed them.

King James Version (1611)
Some remooue the land-markes; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
For some men remoue the landemarkes, robbe men of their cattell, and feede of the same:

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
while the ungodly have passed over the bound, carrying off the flock with the shepherd?

English Revised Version
There are that remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed them.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Othere men turneden ouer the termes of neiyboris eritage, thei token awei flockis, and fedden tho.

Update Bible Version
They move the landmarks; They violently take away flocks, and feed them.

Webster's Bible Translation
[Some] remove the landmarks: they violently take away flocks, and [their] feed.

New King James Version
"Some remove landmarks; They seize flocks violently and feed on them;

New Living Translation
Evil people steal land by moving the boundary markers. They steal livestock and put them in their own pastures.

New Life Bible
Some take away the land-marks and take fields and animals.

New Revised Standard
The wicked remove landmarks; they seize flocks and pasture them.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Boundaries, men move back, flocks, they seize and consume;

Douay-Rheims Bible
Some have removed landmarks, have taken away flocks by force, and fed them.

Revised Standard Version
Men remove landmarks; they seize flocks and pasture them.

Young's Literal Translation
The borders they reach, A drove they have taken violently away, Yea, they do evil.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Some remove the landmarks; They seize and devour flocks.

Contextual Overview

¹ "Why doesn't God All-Powerful set times for judgment? And why can't his followers know when those times will be? ² "People move property markers to get more of their neighbor's land. People steal flocks and lead them to other grasslands. ³ They steal a donkey that belongs to an orphan. They take a widow's cow until she pays what she owes them. They take a nursing baby from its mother. They take a poor person's child to guarantee a loan. ⁴ They force the poor to move out of their way and to get off the road. ⁵ "The poor are like wild donkeys that go out to the desert to find food. From morning to night they work to gather food for their children. ⁶ They have to work in the fields, harvesting grain. They work for the rich, gathering grapes in their vineyards. ⁷ They must sleep all night without clothes. They have no covers to protect them from the cold. ⁸ They are soaked with rain in the mountains. They stay close to the large rocks for shelter. They have no clothes, so they work naked. They carry piles of grain for others, but they go hungry. They press out olive oil and walk on grapes in the winepress, but they have nothing to drink. In the city you can hear the sad sounds of dying people. Those who are hurt cry out for help, but God does not listen. "Some people rebel against the light. They don't know what God wants. They don't live the way he wants. A murderer gets up at dawn and kills poor, helpless people. And at night he becomes a thief. A man who commits adultery waits for the night to come. He thinks, ‘No one will see me,' but still, he covers his face. When it is dark, evil people go out and break into houses. But during the day they lock themselves in their homes to avoid the light. The darkest night is their morning. They are friends with the terrors of darkness. " You say, ‘Evil people are taken away like things carried away in a flood. The land they own is cursed, so no one goes to work in their vineyards. As hot, dry weather melts away the winter snows, so the grave takes away those who have sinned. Their own mothers will forget them. Only the worms will want them. No one will remember them. They will be broken like a rotten stick! These evil people hurt women who have no children to protect them, and they refuse to help widows. By his power God removes the powerful. Even if they have a high position, they cannot be sure of their lives. They might feel safe and secure, but God is watching how they live. They might be successful for a while, but then they will be gone. Like everyone else, they will be cut down like grain.' "I swear these things are true! Who can prove that I lied? Who can show that I am wrong?" ⁹ They take a nursing baby from its mother. They take a poor person's child to guarantee a loan. They force the poor to move out of their way and to get off the road. "The poor are like wild donkeys that go out to the desert to find food. From morning to night they work to gather food for their children. They have to work in the fields, harvesting grain. They work for the rich, gathering grapes in their vineyards. They must sleep all night without clothes. They have no covers to protect them from the cold. They are soaked with rain in the mountains. They stay close to the large rocks for shelter. ¹⁰ They have no clothes, so they work naked. They carry piles of grain for others, but they go hungry.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

landmarks: Deuteronomy 19:14, Deuteronomy 27:17, Proverbs 22:28, Proverbs 23:10, Hosea 5:10

violently: Job 1:15, Job 1:17, Job 5:5

feed thereof: or, feed them

Reciprocal: Leviticus 6:4 - which he Job 20:19 - Because Proverbs 1:13 - General Isaiah 3:14 - ye have eaten Isaiah 32:6 - empty Ezekiel 45:9 - exactions Micah 2:2 - so

Cross-References

Genesis 15:2
But Abram said, "Lord God , there is nothing you can give me that will make me happy, because I have no son. My slave Eliezer from Damascus will get everything I own after I die."

Genesis 24:4
Go back to my country, to my own people, to find a wife for my son Isaac. Bring her here to him."

Genesis 24:6
Abraham said to him, "No, don't take my son to that place.

Genesis 24:8
If the girl refuses to come with you, you will be free from this promise. But you must not take my son back to that place."

Genesis 24:9
So the servant put his hand under his master's leg and made the promise.

Genesis 24:10
The servant took ten of Abraham's camels and left that place. The servant carried with him many different kinds of beautiful gifts. He went to Mesopotamia, to Nahor's city.

Genesis 44:1
Then Joseph gave a command to his servant. He said, "Fill the men's sacks with as much grain as they can carry. Then put each man's money into his sack with the grain.

Genesis 47:29
The time came when Israel knew he would soon die, so he called his son Joseph to him. He said, "If you love me, put your hand under my leg and make a promise. Promise that you will do what I say and that you will be truthful with me. When I die, don't bury me in Egypt.

1 Chronicles 29:24
All the leaders, soldiers, and all of King David's sons accepted Solomon as king and obeyed him.

1 Timothy 5:17
The elders who lead the church in a good way should receive double honor—in particular, those who do the work of counseling and teaching.

Gill's Notes on the 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 to remove them, or openly to do it, having power on their side, pretending they were wrongly located; this was not only prohibited by the law of God, and pronounced an accursed thing, Deuteronomy 19:14; but was reckoned so before the law was given, being known to be such by the light of nature, as what was now, and here condemned, was before that law was in being; and so we find that this was accounted an execrable thing among the Heathens, who had a deity they called Jupiter Terminalis, who was appointed over bounds and landmarks; so Numa Pompilius appointed stones to be set as bounds to everyone's lands, and dedicated them to Jupiter Terminalis, and ordered that those that removed them should be slain as sacrilegious persons, and they and their oxen devoted to destruction f: some render it, "they touch the landmarks" g, as if to touch them was unlawful, and therefore much more to remove them:

they violently take away flocks, and feed [thereof]; not content with a sheep or a lamb, they took away whole flocks, and that by force and violence, openly and publicly, and slew them, and fed on them; or else took them and put them into their own grounds, or such as they had got by encroachments from others, where they fed them without any fear of men; which shows the effrontery and impudence of them.

f Dion. Halicarnass. Festus apud Sanctium in loc. Vid. Rycquium de Capitol. Roman. c. 14. Ovid. Fasti, l. 2. g ישיגו "attigerunt", Pagninus, Bolducius "attingunt", Vatablus.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Some remove the land-marks - Landmarks are pillars or stones set up to mark the boundaries of a farm. To remove them, by carrying them on to the land of another, was an act of dishonesty and robbery - since it was only by marks that the extent of a man’s property could be known. Fences were uncommon; the art of surveying was not well understood, and deeds describing land were probably unknown also, and their whole dependence, therefore, was on the stones that were erected to mark the boundaries of a lot or farm. As it was not difficult to remove them, it became a matter of special importance to guard against it, and to make it a crime of magnitude. Accordingly, it was forbidden in the strictest manner in the law of Moses. “Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor’s land-mark;” Deuteronomy 27:17; compare Deuteronomy 19:14; Proverbs 22:28; Proverbs 23:10.

And feed thereof - Margin, “or, them.” The margin is correct. The meaning is, that they drive off the flocks of others, and “pasture” them; that is, they are at no pains to conceal what they do, but mingle them with their own herds, and feed them as if they were their own. If they drove them away to kill, and removed them wholly from view, it would be less shameful than to keep and claim them as their own, and to make the robbery so public.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 24:2. 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 De 19:14; De 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, not from רעה raah, to feed, but from רע ra, to rend, to destroy.

The Septuagint had read רעה roch, a shepherd; and therefore have translated ποιμνιον συν ποιμενι ἁρπασαντες, "violently carrying off both the flock and the shepherd."