Bible Strands
Job 24:5
Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go to work foraging for food; the wasteland is food for their children.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Job addresses his friends regarding the systemic oppression of the vulnerable, describing how the wicked drive the needy off the road and force the poor into hiding.
The words — The Hebrew פְּרָאִ֨ים (pe.ra.'Im) translates literally as "wild donkeys," and מְשַׁחֲרֵ֣י (me.sha.cha.Rei) means "seeking." These terms frame the poor’s daily survival as a relentless search for sustenance.
The thread — The motif of foraging in harsh terrain appears in Job 5:5, where the hungry consume harvests from thorns, and Job 39:5, which specifically addresses the wild donkey. Human labor for daily provision is also noted in Psalms 104:23.
Why it lands — The text presents the poor’s labor as a desperate, animal-like struggle against a barren landscape. It requires the reader to observe how economic exploitation strips human dignity and reduces survival to a daily hunt.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children.
Cross-references
- Job 5:5 The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from the thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
- Job 39:5 Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from the harness?
- Psalms 104:23 Man goes forth to his work and to his labor until evening.
- Micah 2:1 Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.
- Genesis 16:12 He will be a wild donkey of a man, and his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
- Genesis 27:40 You shall live by the sword and serve your brother. But when you rebel, you will tear his yoke from your neck.”
- Job 12:6 The tents of robbers are safe, and those who provoke God are secure—those who carry their god in their hands.
- Job 24:14 When daylight is gone, the murderer rises to kill the poor and needy; in the night he is like a thief.
- Proverbs 4:16 For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.
- Jeremiah 2:24 a wild donkey at home in the wilderness, sniffing the wind in the heat of her desire. Who can restrain her passion? All who seek her need not weary themselves; in mating season they will find her.