The Meaning of Job 24:16 Explained

Job 24:16

KJV: In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.

YLT: He hath dug in the darkness -- houses; By day they shut themselves up, They have not known light.

Darby: In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves in; they know not the light:

ASV: In the dark they dig through houses: They shut themselves up in the day-time; They know not the light.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

In the dark  they dig through  houses,  [which] they had marked  for themselves in the daytime:  they know  not the light. 

What does Job 24:16 Mean?

Context Summary

Job 24:1-25 - Not Here, But Hereafter
Job laments that the times of punishment are not so explained by God, that those who know Him may see and understand His reasons. He then turns to describe the life of the ungodly, who do dark deeds with apparent impunity. A very sad catalogue of crimes follows. The oppression of the needy, the driving away of the ass of the fatherless, the taking of the widow's ox for a pledge, the frequenting of the wilderness, the plunder of caravans regardless of the claims of pity, the stealing of oil and wine from those who had labored to produce them, the murdering of the poor laboring man at the dawn, the commission of crimes at night-such are the iniquities which are described. And these crimes are still committed in so-called Christian lands. Wonderful that God should bear with us, but His long-suffering would fain lead men to repent. It is only after long forbearing and trial that He cuts down.
In his closing words, Job 24:18-21, Job quotes the opinion of his friends as to the condition of the ungodly, that they pass away swiftly as the waters, and are snapped as a branch of a tree. And, in opposition, he states his own view, Job 24:23-25, that they die in exalted positions, not by a painful and lingering death, but as corn in the maturity of the ear. This also is true. Wicked men do not always meet their deserts in this world. In the next world penalty is inevitable. [source]

Chapter Summary: Job 24

1  Wickedness often goes unpunished
17  There is a secret judgment for the wicked

What do the individual words in Job 24:16 mean?

They break into in the dark houses in the daytime which they marked for themselves not they do know the light
חָתַ֥ר בַּחֹ֗שֶׁךְ בָּ֫תִּ֥ים יוֹמָ֥ם חִתְּמוּ־ לָ֗מוֹ לֹא־ יָ֥דְעוּ אֽוֹר

חָתַ֥ר  They  break  into 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Perfect, third person masculine singular
Root: חָתַר  
Sense: to dig, row.
בַּחֹ֗שֶׁךְ  in  the  dark 
Parse: Preposition-b, Article, Noun, masculine singular
Root: חֹשֶׁךְ  
Sense: darkness, obscurity.
בָּ֫תִּ֥ים  houses 
Parse: Noun, masculine plural
Root: בַּיִת 
Sense: house.
יוֹמָ֥ם  in  the  daytime 
Parse: Adverb
Root: יׄומָם  
Sense: by day, in the daytime subst.
חִתְּמוּ־  which  they  marked 
Parse: Verb, Piel, Perfect, third person common plural
Root: חָתַם  
Sense: to seal, seal up, affix a seal.
לָ֗מוֹ  for  themselves 
Parse: Preposition, third person masculine plural
יָ֥דְעוּ  they  do  know 
Parse: Verb, Qal, Perfect, third person common plural
Root: דָּעָה 
Sense: to know.
אֽוֹר  the  light 
Parse: Noun, common singular
Root: אֹור  
Sense: light.