415. Houses of Clay

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 8
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Job 24:16. In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime.
This refers to houses that are built of clay. Of these there are several varieties. Some have a framework of wicker hurdles thickly daubed with mud. In others the walls are made of layers of mud placed one over the other, each drying before the next is put on. Others still are made of sun—dried bricks. This style of building is very ancient, and is still common in many parts of the East. A thief might easily break through a wall of this kind, and modern thieves are as ready to do it as were the burglars who lived in the days of Job.
Houses like these are referred to by Eliphaz in Job 4:19, where he speaks of “houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth”; and also in Ezekiel 12:5, where the prophet is commanded, in a figurative way, to dig “through the wall.” The Saviour also refers to them when he speaks of thieves breaking through to steal (Matt. 6:19) and of the house which was broken up by the thief (Matt. 24:43). The frailty of the walls of such houses is also probably referred to in Psalm 62:3 and Isaiah 30:13.