Verse Lens · Concise explanation

Job 24:12 Explained in Context

Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.

Selected verse

Verse 12. Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

Job 24:12 closes the thought unit with the words “Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth….” Job states “Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out” as one poetic claim in Job Catalogues Public Exploitation That Goes Unjudged.

Why are judgment times not kept so the faithful can see them?

This verse is one part of that explanation in Job 24:1–24:12. The complete section carries the connected meaning and how it should shape life.

Read It With

  • Job 24:1–24:12

Read Job 24:12 with 24:1–24:12. Read alone, “Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth…” could lose its speaker, the question or claim it develops, and the unit's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Job asks why judgment times are hidden and describes stolen boundaries, seized animals, displaced poor people, exploited labor, nakedness, hunger, and unanswered groans.

Why This Verse Appears Here

After Eliphaz invents private crimes and Job cannot locate God's court, Job redirects the dispute toward public, observable exploitation that appears to go unjudged. Within that relationship, Job 24:12 closes the thought unit through “Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth….”

Read Job 24:1–12 together

Why these verses belong together: Job 24:1–24:12 follows the pinned KJV paragraphing and holds together one sustained speech movement: “Job Catalogues Public Exploitation That Goes Unjudged.” The next unit begins with a new stanza, question sequence, scene, speaker response, or rhetorical turn.

Verse 1. Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?

Verse 2. Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.

Verse 3. They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

Verse 4. They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together.

Verse 5. 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.

Verse 6. They reap every one his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked.

Verse 7. They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold.

Verse 8. They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.

Verse 9. They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor.

Verse 10. They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry;

Verse 11. Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.

Verse 12. Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them.

What Remains True

Job asks why judgment times are hidden and describes stolen boundaries, seized animals, displaced poor people, exploited labor, nakedness, hunger, and unanswered groans. Enduring righteousness requires evidence, fair hearing, accountable power, and concrete protection for people whose dignity, labor, safety, or livelihood is at stake. Job 24:12 carries that bounded truth through “Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth….”

Continue in Context

Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.

Read Job 24:1–24:12 — Job Catalogues Public Exploitation That Goes Unjudged
Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? strong

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.

Exact location: Job 24:1–24:12, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus

Open source ↗

hebrew text and morphology

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Job

Open Scriptures

Open Scriptures, release 2.2

Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.

Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Job.xml, OSIS 24:1–24:12

Open the fixed Hebrew Job file ↗

translation and translator notes

NET Bible First Edition Notes: Job

Biblical Studies Press

Biblical Studies Press, 2006; current official PDF

Supports: Verse-level controls for Job's difficult Hebrew, syntax, older KJV language, textual issues, speech boundaries, and alternatives in Job 24:1–24:12.

Exact location: Official NET Job PDF, exact translator, study, and textual notes attached to Job 24:1–24:12

Open the official NET Job PDF ↗
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