Job 24 · Verse 12

Job 24:12

Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them.
Job 24:12, King James Version

Job 24:12 in other translations

BSBFrom the city, men groan, and the souls of the wounded cry out, yet God charges no one with wrongdoing.
WEBFrom out of the populous city, men groan. The soul of the wounded cries out, yet God doesn’t regard the folly.
ASVFrom out of the populous city men groan, And the soul of the wounded crieth out: Yet God regardeth not the folly.
YLTBecause of enmity men do groan, And the soul of pierced ones doth cry, And God doth not give praise.
DARBYMen groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out; and God imputeth not the impiety.
BBEFrom the town come sounds of pain from those who are near death, and the soul of the wounded is crying out for help; but God does not take note of their prayer.
WebsterMen groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them.

What does Job 24:12 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 24:2-25

2-24. Instances of the wicked doing the worst deeds with seeming impunity (Job 24:2-24). Some--the wicked. landmarks--boundaries between different pastures (De 19:14; Pr 22:28).

Read the full comment on Job 24:2-25 →

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 12 Men groan from out of the city - This is a new paragraph. After having shown the oppressions carried on in the country, he takes a view of those carried on in the town. Here the miseries are too numerous to be detailed. The poor in such places are often in the most wretched state; they are not only badly fed, and miserably clothed, but also most unwholesomely lodged. I was once appointed with a benevolent gentleman, J. S., Esq., to visit a district in St. Giles's London, to know the real state of the poor. We took the district in House Row, and found each dwelling full of people, dirt, and wretchedness. Neither old nor young had the appearance of health: some were sick, and others lying dead, in the same place! Several beds, if they might be called such, on the floor in the same apartment; and, in one single house, sixty souls! These were groaning under various evils; and the soul of the wounded, wounded in spirit, and afflicted in body, cried out to God and man for help! It would have required no subtle investigation to have traced all these miseries to the doors, the hands, the lips, and the hearts, of ruthless landlords; or to oppressive systems of public expenditure in the support of ruinous wars, and the stagnation of trade and destruction of commerce occasioned by them: to which must be added the enormous taxation to meet this expenditure. Yet God layeth not folly to them - He does not impute their calamities to their own folly. Or, according to the Vulgate, Et Deus inultum abire non patitur; "And God will not leave (these disorders) unpunished." But the Hebrew may be translated And God doth not attend to their prayers. Job's object was to show, in opposition to the mistaken doctrine of his friends, that God did not hastily punish every evil work, nor reward every good one. That vice often went long unpunished, and virtue unrewarded; and that we must not judge of a man's state either by his prosperity or adversity. Therefore, there might be cases in which the innocent oppressed poor were crying to God for a redress of their grievances, and were not immediately heard; and in which their oppressors were faring sumptuously every day, without any apparent mark of the Divine displeasure. These sentiments occur frequently.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Job 24:1-12

Job discourses further about the prosperity of the wicked. That many live at ease who are ungodly and profane, he had showed, ch. xxi. Here he shows that many who live in open defiance of all the laws of justice, succeed in wicked practices; and we do not see them reckoned with in this world. He notices those that do wrong under pretence of law and authority; and robbers, those that do wrong by force. He says, "God…

Read the full comment on Job 24:1-12 →

Job 24:12 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

מֵ֘עִ֤ירme.'Irfrom [the] cityH5892
מְתִ֨ים\׀me.TimmenH4962
יִנְאָ֗קוּyin.'A.kuthey groanH5008
וְנֶֽפֶשׁ\־ve.ne.fesh-and [the] throat ofH5315
חֲלָלִ֥יםcha.la.Lim[those] fatally woundedH2491
תְּשַׁוֵּ֑עַte.sha.Ve.a'it cries for helpH7768
וֶ֝אֱל֗וֹהַּve.'e.Lo.ahand GodH433
לֹא\־lo'-notH3808
יָשִׂ֥יםya.Simhe putsH7760
תִּפְלָֽה\׃tif.LahoffensivenessH8604

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Job 24:12

  • Ecclesiastes 4:1

    So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.

  • Psalms 50:21

    These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

  • Romans 2:4-5

    Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

  • Ecclesiastes 8:11-12

    Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him:

  • Malachi 2:17

    Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

  • Malachi 3:15

    And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.

  • Judges 10:16

    And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the Lord: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.

  • Psalms 109:22

    For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.

  • 2 Peter 3:15

    And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;

  • Exodus 2:23-24

    And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

  • Psalms 12:5

    For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.

  • Exodus 22:27

    For that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
groan.
Ex 1:13,14; 2:23,24; 22:27; Jud 10:16; Ps 12:5; Ec 4:1; Isa 52:5
wounded.
Ps 69:26; 109:22
yet God.
Ps 50:21; Ec 8:11,12; Mal 2:17; 3:15; Ro 2:4,5; 2Pe 3:15

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Job 24:11

    Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.

  • Job 24:12

    Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them.

  • Job 24:13

    They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.

Read all of Job 24

Job 24:12 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909
De la ciudad gimen los hombres, y claman las almas de los heridos de muerte: mas Dios no puso estorbo.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885
Des villes sortent les soupirs des mourants, et l’âme des blessés à mort crie, et ✝Dieu n’impute pas l’indignité qui se commet.
German
Elberfelder 1871
Von der Stadt her ächzen Sterbende, und die Seele der Erschlagenen schreit. Und Gott rechnet es nicht als Ungebühr an.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate
De civitatibus fecerunt viros gemere, et anima vulneratorum clamavit: et Deus inultum abire non patitur.