What Does Job 24:10 Mean in the King James?
They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry;
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
A sheaf being carried is not proof of provision when the hungry are left without it.
THE MEANING
The verse lays deprivation bare: a body goes uncovered while food is taken from the hungry person’s reach. It reveals how a harvest can move through the world while hunger remains.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the claim that food’s existence means provision has been made: a sheaf can be present and still be withheld from the hungry.
THE ROOT
נָשְׂאוּ
nas'u
GROWS FROM
נשא
nasa
to lift, carry, bear
The verb rendered “take away” carries the physical sense of lifting and carrying. Applied to a sheaf while hunger marks the people, it makes the deprivation concrete: food is moved, but need remains.
ALSO GROWS
nose': one who carries or bears
נֹשֵׂא
The carrier is named through the same root that describes moving the sheaf away.
massa: burden, load
מַשָּׂא
A carried load grows from the same root, linking the removal of food with the act of bearing.
רְעֵבִים
re'evim
GROWS FROM
רעב
ra'av
hunger; to be hungry
“hungry” in this verse is re'evim. The line names hunger directly beside the sheaf. Need and harvested food occupy the same scene, making the deprivation bodily and immediate.
ALSO GROWS
ra'ev: hungry
רָעֵב
The singular form names the person’s bodily condition.
ra'av: famine, hunger
רָעָב
The related noun extends hunger from an individual’s condition to a wider state of scarcity.
לְבוּשׁ
levush
GROWS FROM
לבש
lavash
to put on, wear
The word for clothing grows from the action of wearing. The line sets the missing covering of the body beside the missing food, showing deprivation reaching both shelter and sustenance.
ALSO GROWS
lavash: to wear, put on
לָבַשׁ
The verb names the act that clothing makes possible, an act absent from the exposed body.
malbush: garment, clothing
מַלְבּוּשׁ
This related noun names the covering that the verse says is missing.
THE PATTERN
Harvest and wages expose whether provision reaches the people who are hungry and laboring.
At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the LORD, and it be sin unto thee.Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.THE THREAD
If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him.Job’s נָשְׂאוּ (nas’u, they carry or lift) describes the sheaf taken from the hungry; Exodus uses מַשָּׂא (massa, burden or load), from the same נשא (nasa, lift, carry, bear) root. The shared root reveals two directions for carrying: food can be removed from someone in need, or a burden can be helped.
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