Light Used Figuratively
Joseph Caryl. Job 24:13 They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof. Light may be considered in two ways. Either properly or figuratively. 1. We may understand the text of light in a proper sense, and some insist chiefly on that. They rebel against the very light of the sun, or the ordinary daylight. Wicked men love darkness; they hate even natural light, the light of the sun, because it seldom serves, but often hinders, their occasions. 2. Take light figuratively for the light of knowledge. So it is more true that wicked men rebel against it. The light rebelled against is rather an internal light, that light which shines into the soul, than that which shines to the eye; and there is a two-fold internal light, against which wicked men may be said to rebel. (1) The light of nature, or natural internal light; there is a light of the natural conscience, which every man carrieth about him, concerning good and evil, or what is to be done and what is to be left undone. (2) There is a light of Divine revelation, which shines into the soul from the Scriptures or written Word of God. Divine truths inspired and dictated by the Spirit of God are there written as with the beams of the sun. Yet the wicked man rebels against the clearest and fullest discoveries of the mind of God. 3. Some understand by the "light" here, God Himself, who is light. The very reason why the light of nature and the light of reason are rebelled against, is because the former hath somewhat of God in it, and the latter much of God in it. For as God is light, so all light is of God. (Joseph Caryl.) Parallel Verses KJV: They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof. WEB: "These are of those who rebel against the light. They don't know its ways, nor stay in its paths.