Job 24:6

Job having by his complaints in the foregoing chapter given vent to his passion, and thereby gained some ease, breaks them off abruptly, and now applies himself to a further discussion of the doctrinal controversy between him and his friends concerning the prosperity of wicked people. That many live at ease who yet are ungodly and profane, and despise all the exercises of devotion, he had shown, ch. 21. Now here he goes further, and shows that many who are mischievous to mankind, and live in open defiance to all the laws of justice and common honesty, yet thrive and succeed in their unrighteous practices; and we do not see them reckoned with in this world. What he had said before (Job 12:6), "The tabernacles of robbers prosper," he here enlarges upon. He lays down his general proposition (Job 24:1), that the punishment of wicked people is not so visible and apparent as his friends supposed, and then proves it by an induction of particulars. I. Those that openly do wrong to their poor neighbours are not reckoned with, nor the injured righted (Job 24:2-12), though the former are very barbarous (Job 24:21, Job 24:22). II. Those that secretly practise mischief often go undiscovered and unpunished (Job 24:13-17). III. That God punished such by secret judgments and reserves them for future judgments (Job 24:18-20, and Job 24:23-25), so that, upon the whole matter, we cannot say that all who are in trouble are wicked; for it is certain that all who are in prosperity are not righteous.

24:6 glean in the vineyards of the wicked: Job was depicting the desperate condition of the poor. If their fields had been stolen like Naboth’s vineyard (24:2; see 1 Kgs 21:1-29), the poor would harvest for the thieving owners what should have been their own crops; instead of owning the whole crop, they would get just the leftover pickings for themselves. Perhaps the point is that the poor were forced to glean from the fields of wicked people who left no gleanings (Lev 19:10; 23:22), instead of being able to glean from the righteous, who leave something for the poor (Lev 19:9-10; 23:22; Ruth 2:1-23).