24:10 They go about naked, without clothing,
and go hungry while they carry the sheaves. 1
24:11 They press out the olive oil between the rows of olive trees; 2
they tread the winepresses while they are thirsty. 3
1 sn The point should not be missed – amidst abundant harvests, carrying sheaves about, they are still going hungry.
2 tc The Hebrew term is שׁוּרֹתָם (shurotam), which may be translated “terraces” or “olive rows.” But that would not be the proper place to have a press to press the olives and make oil. E. Dhorme (Job, 360-61) proposes on the analogy of an Arabic word that this should be read as “millstones” (which he would also write in the dual). But the argument does not come from a clean cognate, but from a possible development of words. The meaning of “olive rows” works well enough.
3 tn The final verb, a preterite with the ו (vav) consecutive, is here interpreted as a circumstantial clause.