Job 24:16

In the dark the robber ¹  breaks into houses, ²  but by day they shut themselves in; ³  they do not know the light. ⁴ 

Ex 22:2,3; Job 24:13; Job 38:12,13; Eze 12:5-7,12; Mt 24:43; Joh 3:20; Eph 5:11-13

¹ tn The phrase “the robber” has been supplied in the English translation for clarification.

² tc This is not the idea of the adulterer, but of the thief. So some commentators reverse the order and put this verse after v. 14.

³ tc The verb חִתְּמוּ (khittÿmu) is the Piel from the verb חָתַם (khatam, “to seal”). The verb is now in the plural, covering all the groups mentioned that work under the cover of darkness. The suggestion that they “seal,” i.e., “mark” the house they will rob, goes against the meaning of the word “seal.”

⁴ tc Some commentators join this very short colon to the beginning of v. 17: “they do not know the light. For together…” becomes “for together they have not known the light.”