What Does Job 24:21 Mean?
He feeds upon the barren one who does not bear, and to the widow he does no good.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
He evil entreateth the barren that beareth not: and doeth not good to the widow.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb behind “evil entreateth” also belongs to the language of feeding and shepherding: here the image of tending is turned into predation.
THE MEANING
This verse names two forms of harm that still meet people left exposed: predation against a barren woman and withheld good from a widow. It shows neglect as an act with consequences, not a neutral absence. The person with power shapes whether vulnerability is met with care or exploited.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A woman’s barrenness or a widow’s loss does not make her available for exploitation or less deserving of good.
THE ROOT
רֹעֶה
ro'eh
GROWS FROM
רעה
to pasture, feed, or tend
“feeds upon” in this verse is ro'eh. The word רֹעֶה (ro’eh, “he feeds or shepherds”) comes from רעה (ra’ah, “to pasture, feed, or tend”). Its tending sense gives the line a sharp inversion: the vulnerable person is treated as prey, while the following clause names withheld good as a second form of harm.
ALSO GROWS
ro'eh: shepherd, one who tends or feeds
רֹעֶה
This form makes the verse’s verb resonate with the language of tending.
mir'eh: pasture, grazing ground
מִרְעֶה
The pasture belongs to the same feeding word-family, sharpening the verse’s image of someone feeding at another’s expense.
עֲקָרָה
ʿaqārah
GROWS FROM
עקר
to uproot or pluck out; related forms also refer to barrenness
עֲקָרָה (ʿaqārah, “barren woman”) shares the root עקר (ʿāqar, “to uproot or pluck out”), which also forms words for barrenness. The word-link makes her exposure vivid, but the sentence places the wrongdoing on the one who exploits her; her childlessness is not presented as the wrongdoing.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāqār: barren, without offspring
עָקָר
This related form names the same condition in masculine form.
ʿāqar: to uproot, pull out by the roots
עָקַר
The shared consonants connect the word for barrenness with the image of uprooting.
THE PATTERN
Scripture measures power by whether it protects people left exposed or uses their vulnerability for gain.
He executes judgment for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him bread and a cloak.The LORD guards the sojourners. He upholds the fatherless and the widow. But the way of the wicked he makes crooked.Clean and unstained service before God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widowed in their being pressed, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.THE THREAD
Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD, Woe to those who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock?The same root רעה (ra’ah, “to shepherd or feed”) names both the shepherd and the act of feeding in Ezekiel. There the shepherd feeds himself instead of the flock; Job’s verb carries the same sharp possibility of feeding at the expense of those who need care.
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