Bible Strands
Job 24:8
Drenched by mountain rains, they huddle against the rocks for want of shelter.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Job addresses his three friends and the broader audience while cataloging the visible suffering of the oppressed. He describes the destitute who endure exposure and exploitation without immediate divine intervention.
The words — מִזֶּרֶם הָרִים (mi./Ze.rem ha.Rim) literally renders "from the rain of the mountains," and חִבְּקוּ־צוּר (chi./be.ku Tzur) means "they embrace the rock." These terms ground the verse in physical exposure rather than metaphor.
The thread — The image of exposed vulnerability parallels the street destitution in Lamentations 4:5 and the wandering poor who hide in caves and holes in Hebrews 11:38.
Why it lands — The text first establishes the raw physical reality of unprotected suffering. It requires readers to acknowledge systemic injustice and human fragility before any theological resolution is considered.
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
They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.
Cross-references
- Lamentations 4:5 Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps.
- Song of Solomon 5:2 I sleep, but my heart is awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking: “Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night.”
- Hebrews 11:38 The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and hid in caves and holes in the ground.